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PRESENTED BY 


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MADISON C 


PETERS 





JUSTICE TO THE JEW 


THE STORY OF 


WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR THE WORLD 



BY 


MADISON C. PETERS 


Author of "The Great Hereafter"The Panacea for Poverty “ The Wit and 

Wisdom of the Talmudetc. 


There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.— JOSEPH AddiSON. 

The Jews are among the aristocracy of every land; if a literature is called rich in 
the possession of a few classic tragedies, what shall we say to a national tragedy 
lasting for fifteen hundred years, in which the poets and the actors were also the 
heroes.— George Eliot. 



NEW YORK 

THE BAKER AND TAYLOR CO. 
5 and 7 East Sixteenth Street 





Copyright, 1899 
By F. Tennyson Neely 

Copyright, 1900 
By Madison C. Peters 

All rights reserved 


BY TRM^SFER 

MAY 8 



2 


* « c 




TO 


REV. DR. H. PEREIRA MENDES, 

Minister of the Spanish and Portuguese Shearith Israel Synagogue, New York. 

IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF MUCH KINDLY ADVICE, 
HELPFULNESS AND ENCOURAGEMENT, 

THIS BOOK 


IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. 


•• 








LINES TO AN ANTI-SEMITE. 


Stand ! as God saw thee of old time 
We see and know thee now: 

The brand of unforgotten crime 
Still black upon thy brow. 

That mark, Eternal Justice traced, 

Thou coverest in vain; 

Its blighting stigma uneffaced: 

Where is thy brother, Cain? 

Ay, hypocrite, and if thou wilt, 

White hands, in protest, spread! 

The blood by coarser murderers spilt 
Was at thy bidding shed. 

Thy speech inflamed each ignorant soul 
With thine own maddening wine; 

And when their fury burst control, 

Their brutal acts were thine. 

For thee, the crowded Plaza seethed 
Round Seville’s high-built pyre; 

And shrinking forms of women wreathed 
With coiling snakes of fire. 

Thy servants fanned their ardent breath 
Into a fiercer flame; 

And watched, well-pleased, the dallying death, 
That lingered ere it came. 



VI 


LINES TO AN ANTI-SEMITE. 


But thou hast darker secrets yet, 

And deeds more dear to hell. 

The sightless, soundless oubliette 
Hath kept thy counsel well. 

The silent hours that crush the heart, 

The soul-destroying gloom: 

Thine, devil, was the fiendish art 
Devised that living tomb. 

Woe, woe on the unhappy state, 

That learns thy bloody creed; 

And makes her mansion desolate 
Thy cruel lust to feed. 

Before one dread, impartial bar 
Her sons shall find, ere long, 

How terrible the helpless are, 

The feeble ones how strong! 

Lo! where the dotard empress, Spain, 

With loosened necklace stands, 

While those fair jewels, grain by grain, 

Slip from her nerveless hands! 

Unmoved she sees her pearls depart, 

And smiles with alien eyes; 

For heavy on her palsied heart 
The curse of Israel lies. 

Foul shark, whose malice never sleeps, 

On noblest victims fed: 

What swimmer bold shall cleave the deeps 
Thy ravin left so red; 

And when thy bulk sways up to breathe 
On that encrimsoned tide, 

With one unerring home-thrust sheathe 
His dagger in thy side? 

—Edward Sydney Tyler: London Spectator , 
Feb. 25, 1899. 


PREFACE. 


This is a book of facts rather than opinions. 
It does not pretend to exhaust the subject. It 
is not written for the special student of Jew¬ 
ish history, but for popular use. We believe 
that the facts here given are very generally un¬ 
known both to Jews and Gentiles. We speak of 
non-Jews as Gentiles (in Hebrew phraseology 
Gentiles were all the nations or peoples besides 
the Jews) because their treatment of the Jews 
makes Christian a misnomer. Various are the 
names by which Jews are known. The Bible calls 
them “the people of God.” Mordecai said: 
“For he had told him that he was a Jew.” 
From the time of Babylon and the Great Disper¬ 
sion the descendants of the patriarchs have 
been called Jews ( Jehudim ) or descendants of 
Judah. Jonah said: “I am a Hebrew.” He¬ 
brew is derived from Ibri , meaning the other 



PREFACE. 


viii 

side of the Euphrates, or from Eber , the great- 
grandson of Shem. Elijah said: “Israel shall 
thy name be.” Israel (prince or prevailer with 
God) in commemoration of Jacob’s conflict of 
faith with the heavenly messenger at Peniel. 
If what we have written will essentially modify 
the views which the Gentile world holds with 
regard to the position of the Jew, and will lead 
Christians to grant to him the possession of the 
mental, social, moral, and spiritual qualifica¬ 
tions which history affirms, and if we can make 
every Jew feel as Lord Beaconsfield felt when 
taunted in the House of Lords for his Jewish 
extraction, “I can well afford to be called a 
Jew,” we shall feel well repaid for the labor 
involved in this refined study of history. 

M. C. P. 


SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER I. page 

JEWISH PRE—REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 

Christopher Columbus and the Participation of the Spanish 
Jews in the Discovery of America. The First Arrival of 
Jews in New Amsterdam. Governor Peter Stuyvesant’s 
Persistent Hostility. Denied Civil and Religious Liberty 
under the English. The High Standard of Excellence of 
the old Jewish Merchants of New York. Roger Williams, 
the Pioneer of Religious Liberty in America, attracting the 
Jews to Newport. The Jews make Newport the formid¬ 
able Commercial Rival of New York. The Jewish 
Cemetery at Newport. Address of the Newport Con¬ 
gregation to Washington and his Reply. The Jews in 
Philadelphia and Baltimore. The Intolerant Provision in 
the Constitution of Maryland. Jews in Savannah. 
Settlement in Charleston. Correspondence between 
Hebrews and George Washington. 17 

CHAPTER II. 

THE NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE JEWS. 

Half of the Descendants of Abraham still Subject to 
Special Laws. The Number of Jews in the Different 
Countries of the World. Bright Prospects for the Jews 
in Palestine. Modern Ideas Gaining Ground. 53 

CHAPTER HI. 

THE GROWTH OF JEWISH POPULATION IN THE UNiTED 

STATES . 59 






CONTENTS. 


xii 


CHAPTER IV. 

PATRIOTISM OP THE EUROPEAN JEW. page 

The Charge that the Jew is not and cannot be a Patriot Refut¬ 
ed. Wherever the Jews have been Permitted the Oppor¬ 
tunity of Fighting for their Country, they have Proved 
that the Contumely Heaped upon them has not Quenched 
their Manhood. The Ignominies which were Heaped upon 
the Jews during the Middle Ages. Relentless and Diabol¬ 
ical Persecutions. Yet the Jews were never Wanting in 
Patriotism. In the Spanish Battles they Fought as Brav¬ 
est Knights. Wherever the Jew found a Friend in his 
Country his Country found a Friend in Him. The Ger¬ 
mans as Jew-Baiters. The Jews the most Anciently Cult¬ 
ured People in the W orld. The Patriotism of the J ews in 
the Franco-Prussian War. Their Fight for their Civil and 
Political Rights in Germany. Not until 1869 were they 
Relieved from the Mediaeval Yoke. The Emancipation of 
the Jews in France. The Promptness with which they 
Rallied under the Banner of the Empire and the Republic 
when the Safety of their Country was Imperilled. Napo¬ 
leon and the Jews. Jews in the Hungarian Revolution. 
Jews in the Italian Army. Jews in England. Their 
Complete Emancipation not Brought About until 1858. 
Jews who have Distinguished Themselves in the British 
Army and Navy. 65 


CHAPTER V. 

THE JEW AS AN AMERICAN PATRIOT. 

Jews in the First Organized Movement for Separation from 
England. Haym Salomon and Other J ews who Sacrificed 
Their Fortunes for Independence. Officers who Distin- 
guised Themselves upon the Battlefields of the Revolu¬ 
tion. The Commemoration of the first Battlefield of the 
Revolutionary War made Possible through a Jew. 
Distinguished Soldiers in the War of 1812. Jewish Pa¬ 
triotism in the Mexican War. The Jew a Conspicious 
Figure in our Regular Army and Navy from the Earliest 
Periods of the Republic. J ews in the Civil War. Officers 
who Achieved High Distinction. The Part the Jews took 



CONTENTS. 


xiii 


PAGE 

in Creating Public Opinion through the Political Move¬ 
ments for the Abolition of Slavery. Over 4,000 Jews in 
the American Army during the War with Spain. Their 
Gallant and Meritorious Services. 80 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 

As Poets—Halevi’s Soul-stirring “Lay of Zion.” Heine’s 
Account of Halevi. Solomon Ibn Gabirol. Italian, 
Austrian, French and German Poets. Heine, Goethe’s 
Successor. Selections from Heine. The Poets of England 
and America. Jewish Novelists. Jewish Dramatists, 

The Drama in the Early Centuries. The first Jewish Con¬ 
tributions to the Drama. German, French, English and 
American Dramatists. Jewish Genius on the Stage. 
Litterateurs of the Essayist Type. Literary Critics. Jew¬ 
ish Journalists. The Jews in Music. Their Triumphs as 
Performers as Great as Composers. The Jews as 
Painters, Sculptors and Architects. 109 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 

Eminent Philosophers. Philo, Maimonides, Levi Ben Gerson, 
Maimon, Spinoza, Mendelssohn and Others. Why the 
Members of Distinguished Jewish Families Abandoned 
Judaism. Jewish Historians. Antiquarians, Econo¬ 
mists, Statisticians, Mathematicians, Astronomers, Ex¬ 
plorers and Philologists. Our Higher Critics Centuries 
Behind the Jew. Botanists and Biologists. The Jews 
in Medicine. Their Peculiarly High Position in the Mid¬ 
dle Ages. As Court Physicians Held the Lives of All 
Princes and Prelates in Their Hands. Original Discov¬ 
eries in Medicine. Arabic Medicine the Daughter of Jew¬ 
ish Medicine. Maimonides’ Prayer. The Law. Distin¬ 
guished Jurists. 149 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE JEW IN POLITICS. 

Jews who Distinguished Themselves Politically from the Tenth 
to the Eighteenth Century. The Jews in German Politics. 





xiy 


CONTENTS. 


PACE 

Famous French Statesmen. The Astonishing Rapidity 
with which the Jews have Reached the Highest Round in 
the Ladder of Political Fame in Italy. The Fight for 
Equal Rights in England, and the Remarkable Rise of the 
British Jews in Politics. Jewish United States Senators, 
Congressmen, Supreme Court Judges, Consuls and Min¬ 
isters to Foreign Countries. State and Municipal Officers. 180 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE JEW IN FINANCE. 

The Rothschilds. Capital and Jew not Synonymous Terms. 

Jews not so Rich as Popularly Supposed. The Jews 
Originally an Agricultural People. Persecution Made 
Them Merchants. The Jews as Pioneers in Industrial 
Progress. Jewish Commerce and Civilization. The Part 
of the Jews in Rearing the Great Metropolitan Centers of 
Commerce. The Important Part Consumers Play in the 
Drama of World-Economy. The Producer cannot get on 
without the Middle-man. Shylock not a Jew. The 
Historical Foundation of the Pound of Flesh Reverses 
the Position of the Jew and Christian. Shylock, the Jew 
whom Shakespeare drew, of all Shakespeare’s Characters 
the only One Untrue to Nature. Gentiles who go Old 
Shylock one Better. The History of Usury. Not a Jew¬ 
ish Characteristic. History Fails to make a Distinction 
between Jews and their Christian Brethren. The most 
Infamously Notorious Usurers of History were not Jews. 203 

CHAPTER X. 

THE JEW IN THE PULPIT. 

The Merit of Jewish Preachers. What Jewish Preachers 
have to say Concerning Vital Questions. Judaism 
Defined. 235- 


CHAPTER XI. 

THE ATTITUDE OF MODERN JUDAISM TOWARD CHRISTIANITY. 

Dr. Gottheil on “Jesus and the Jews.” A Plea for a Better 
Understanding and a more Friendly Disposition Between 
Various Creeds. The New Testament in the Light of 
Judaism. The Jewish Sunday-Sabbath. 261 




CONTENTS. 


XV 


CHAPTER XII. page 

THE TALMUD. 

Its Literary Beauties and Its Ethics. 285 

CHAPTER XIII. 

PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 

Jews gave to the World the First Republic. They gave Us 
our Bible. Jesus a Jew. Did the Jews Crucify Christ ? 

The Longevity of the Jews. The Jews a Law-abiding 
People. The Jew in Charity. Divorce seldom Hears of 
TTim Unknown to the Potter’s Field. The French 
Press and its Attacks on the Jews. Is there to be a 
New St. Bartholomew ? Making “Jew” a Verb to Desig¬ 
nate Trickery in Trade. Not Fair to let Prejudice against 
Individuals Develop into Prejudice against a Race. The 
Jew is what We Made Him. Parvenus in American 
Society. Judenhas Cannot Shield Itself Behind Chris¬ 
tianity. Zionism. America the Jewish Canaan.309 



















































































Jewish Pre-Revolutionary Settlements. 


The Jew is beyond doubt the most remarkable man of this 
world—past or present. Of all the stories of the sons of men, 
there is none so wild, so wonderful, so full of extreme mutation, 
so replete with suffering and horror, so abounding in extraor¬ 
dinary providences, so overflowing with scenic romance. There 
is no man who approaches him in the extent and character of the 
influence which he has exercised over the human family. His 
history is the history of our civilization and progress in this 
world, and our faith and hope in that which is to come. From 
him have we derived the form and pattern of all that is excellent 
on earth or in heaven. If, as De Quincey says, the Roman 
Emperors, as the great accountants for the happiness of more 
men and men more cultivated than ever before were intrusted to 
the motions of a single will, had a special, singular and mys¬ 
terious relation to the secret councils of heaven—thrice truly 
may it be said of the Jew. Palestine, his home, was the central 
chamber of God’s administration. He was at once the grand 
usher to these glorious courts, the repository of the [councils of 
the Almighty, and the envoy of the divine mandates to the con¬ 
sciences of men. He was the priest and faith-giver to mankind, 
and as such, in spite of the jibe and jeer, he must ever be con¬ 
sidered as occupying a peculiar and sacred relation to [all other 
peoples of this world. Even now, though the Jews have long 
since ceased to exist as a consolidated nation inhabiting a 
common country, and for eighteen hundred years have been 
scattered far and near over the wide earth, their strange customs, 
their distinct features, personal peculiarities and their scattered 
unity make them still a wonder and an astonishment.— Zebulon 
B. Vance. 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


CHAPTER I. 

JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 

The last chapter of the Jews in Spain is their 
first chapter on the Continent of America. With 
the same hand and the same pen, and on the 
same day on which Ferdinand and Isabella 
signed that infamous edict which extirpated 
one hundred and seventy thousand families from 
the land of their birth, because they declined to 
have Christianity forced upon them, they also 
signed the articles of agreement that authorized 
Cristobal Colon, as the Spaniards called Colum¬ 
bus, to go forth in search of another world, 
where, in the words of Castelar, the distin¬ 
guished Spanish publicist, “creation should be 
new born, a haven be afforded to the quickening 
principle of human liberty, and a temple be 
reared to the God of enfranchised and redeemed 
conscience.’ * 

Dr. Moses Kayserling, in his work, “Christo¬ 
pher Columbus and the Participation of the Jews 



20 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


in the Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries,” 
translated into English by Professor Charles 
Gross, of Harvard College, has established be¬ 
yond a doubt that it was a Castilian Jew, Louis 
de Santangel, Councillor and Comptroller of Ara¬ 
gon, and his brother-in-law, Gabriel Sanchez, the 
Treasurer of Aragon, who supplied to Columbus 
the funds needed to fit out his caravels. Isa¬ 
bella did not sell her valuable jewels to fit 
out Columbus for his voyage, for the very 
good reason that she had already pawned 
or sold them to defray the expenses of the 
wars then devastating her country. The 
maps which Columbus used were drawn up by 
a Portuguese Jew. Columbus derived much 
value from the astronomical tables of Abraham 
Zacuto. These tables were translated from the 
Hebrew into Latin and Spanish by Joseph Ve- 
cincho, Zacuto’s pupil, another Jew, distin¬ 
guished as a physician, cosmographer and math¬ 
ematician, and it was he who presented a copy 
of these tables to the Genoese navigator. Rod¬ 
rigo Sanchez, a nephew of Gabriel Sanchez, was 
designated to accompany the expedition as 
veedor , or superintendent, at the special re¬ 
quest of Queen Isabella. The ship physician 
Maestre Bernal, the surgeon Marco, and a sailor 
Alonso de la Calle, were Jews. It was a Jew, 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 21 

Kodrigo de Triana, who first saw the land, and 
another Jew, Luis de Torres, the interpreter, 
who first set foot on American soil, having been 
sent ashore to greet the Grand Khan of India, 
whose country Columbus believed he had 
reached by a new route. 

JEWS IN NEW YORK. 

July 8, 1654, witnessed the first arrival of 
Jews in New Amsterdam, as New York City 
was then called—Jacob Aboaf and Jacob Barim- 
son. In the autumn of the same year twenty- 
seven men, women and two children came from 
Bahia, abandoning Brazil when the Dutch evac¬ 
uated that country, and once again in all possi¬ 
ble haste they sought the shelter of a Dutch 
colony. Upon their arrival here their goods 
were seized and sold at public auction for the 
payment of their passage, and the amount real¬ 
ized by the sale being insufficient, Jacque de la 
Motthe, the master of the vessel, St. Catarina, 
applied to the court for an order that two of the 
new arrivals, as principals, be held as hostages 
until the full amount was paid. Accordingly 
David Israel and Moses Ambrosius were placed 
under civil arrest. There was no discrimination 
against them because of their faith, but they 
were detained at the creditor’s expense, pend- 


22 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


ing payment, in accordance with the debtor’s 
laws of the day. 

In the spring of 1655 other Jews arrived from 
Holland, and the expulsion of the Jews from 
Brazil increasing the Jewish residents in New 
York, gave ground for the belief that their num¬ 
ber would grow enormously. The bigoted gov¬ 
ernor, Peter Stuyvesant, who had absolute con¬ 
trol of the council as well as the burgomasters 
and schepens, wrote to the directors of the 
West India Company in Amsterdam, requesting 
that “none of the Jewish nation be permitted to 
infest the New Netherlands.” The answer was 
worthy of tolerant Holland—that his request 
“was inconsistent with reason and justice.” 
Incensed at Stuyvesant’s unwarranted assump¬ 
tion of authority, an act was passed permitting 
the Jews to reside and trade in New Nether¬ 
lands, so long as they cared for their own poor. 

In 1655 D’Andrade was denied the privilege 
of holding real estate. During the same year 
the governor and the council refused De Lucena 
permission to prepare a burial ground for the 
Jews, on the ground that there was no need for 
it. A death a few months later caused the rev¬ 
ocation of this decision. Stuyvesant was per¬ 
sistent in his hostility to the Jews, forbidding 
them to trade to Fort Orange (Albany), and the 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 23 

South River (the Delaware), denying them the 
privileges in New Amsterdam which they had 
enjoyed in old Amsterdam. A letter to Stuy- 
vesant from the directors in Amsterdam, dated 
July 14, 1656, established their rights: 

“We have seen and heard with displeasure 
that, against our orders of the 15th day of Feb¬ 
ruary, 1655, issued at the request of the Jewish 
or Portuguese nation, you have forbidden them 
to trade to Fort Orange and the South River, 
also the purchase of real estate, which is granted 
to them without difficulty here in this country, 
and we wish it had not been done, and that you 
had obeyed our orders, which you must always 
execute punctually and with more respect. 
Jews or Portuguese people, however, shall not be 
employed in any public service (to which they 
neither are admitted in this city) nor allowed to 
have open retail shops, but they may quietly 
and peacefully carry on their business as afore¬ 
said, and exercise in all quietness their religion 
within their houses, for which end they must 
without doubt endeavor to build their houses 
close together in a convenient place on one or the 
other side of New Amsterdam—at their choice 
—as they have done here.” The chief motive 
which prompted this favorable response was un¬ 
doubtedly the fact that there were several Jew- 


24 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


ish directors of the West India Company—as 
the directors put it, it was “because of the 
large amount of capital which the Jews have 
invested in the shares of this company.” An 
interesting example of the old-time intolerance 
is the fact that the Pilgrim Fathers appealed in 
vain to the Dutch government for permission to 
settle in its American dominions before the 
Plymouth settlement was made. 

In 1664 the city was captured by the English, 
and its name changed to New York, in honor of 
the Duke of York. In 1683, a charter of liber¬ 
ties and privileges was adopted by the colonial 
assembly, which among other provisions de¬ 
clared that “no one should be molested, pun¬ 
ished, or disquieted, or called in question for 
his religious opinions, who professed faith in 
God by Jesus Christ,” and that all such persons 
should “at all times freely have and enjoy their 
judgments and consciences in matters of religion 
throughout the province,” which was extending 
religious freedom to all but Jews. In 1685 the 
Jewish residents petitioned Governor Dongan 
“for liberty to exercise their religion.” The 
governor referred the petition to the mayor and 
the common council of New York, who decided 
“that no public worship is tolerated by act of 
assembly, but to those that profess faith in 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 25 

Christ, and therefore the Jew’s worship was not 
to be allowed.” 

When James, Duke of York, became King 
James II., his former instructions to Governor 
Andross, who had succeeded Dongan, were re¬ 
peated to permit all persons of whatever religion 
freedom of worship, and we find in 1695 a syna¬ 
gogue, and it may have been built as early as 
1691, for De la Motthe Cadillac enumerates in 
his history of New York in 1691 the Jews as 
one of the sects, and then adds that each sect 
had its church. This first synagogue in the 
new world was situated on the north side of 
Mills Street, a street no longer in existence. 

The prosperity of the Jews at this time is at¬ 
tested by Lord Bellamont’s report, who, in Oc¬ 
tober, 1700, advised the English government 
that he has “much trouble in paying the sol¬ 
diers’ subsistence in money weekly,” that they 
“would advance no money whatever on his 
orders,” “so that were it not for one Dutch mer¬ 
chant and two or three Jews that lent me money 
I should have been undone.” 

The prohibition against the Jews going into 
retail trade, which was a Dutch law that some¬ 
how remained operative under English law, was 
gradually dropped, for we find Jews engaged in 
retail trade in numerous instances in the eight¬ 
eenth century. 


26 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


On a question concerning the contested seat 
of Colonel Frederick Phillips, of Westchester 
County, the General Assembly of New York, on 
September 23, 1737, resolved that Jews could 
neither vote for representatives nor be admitted 
as witnesses. In 1740 Parliament passed the 
well-known Naturalization Act, with its special 
provisions for Jewish citizens, but the act had 
not much effect. Judge Daly says of this act: 

“Under it, foreigners who had resided seven 
years in a British colony, without being absent 
at any time over two months, might be natural¬ 
ized; and if such foreigner were a Jew, he 
might be naturalized without taking the sacra¬ 
ment of the Lord’s Supper, under 7 Jac. I. c. ii, 
and in his case, under this act, the words in the 
abjuration oath, “on the true faith of a Chris¬ 
tian” might be dispensed with; but the natura¬ 
lization could only be obtained by applying for 
an act of Parliament, and a certificate had to be 
obtained from the home secretary before a bill 
could be introduced that the person applying 
was of good character, etc. And as the procur¬ 
ing of the passage of an act of parliament was 
attended with a great deal of trouble and some 
expense, very few Jews availed themselves of 
it, a fact ascertained by an inquiry made by 
Parliament in 1754 (Smollett’s “History of Eng- 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 2? 

land,” B. III. c. iii., 5 x.). As the act of 1740 
applied to persons who had resided the pre¬ 
scribed number of years in British colonies, an 
act was introduced in 1753 (26 Geo. ii. c. 2) by 
which any foreigner could be naturalized upon 
like conditions. It passed the House of Lords 
without opposition, but was furiously assailed 
in the House of Commons. It was carried, how¬ 
ever, by the power of the ministry. This act, 
which is historically known as “The Jew Bill,” 
continued only for a few months, for it was re¬ 
ceived by the nation, the historians tell us, with 
“horror and execration.” Those who had voted 
for it were denounced by the people. The bishop 
of Norwich was insulted at the communion, 
and in the public streets; petitions poured in 
from the cities for its repeal, and on the first 
day of the next session a bill to repeal it was 
introduced and hurriedly passed with the assent 
of both parties. This intolerance in respect to 
the Jews continued until 1825, when an act was 
passed (9 Geo. I. V. c. 27) relieving persons to 
be naturalized thereafter from the obligation of 
taking the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.” 

In 1749 a riot broke out in New York, which, 
according to Governor Clinton’s report to Lon¬ 
don, was directed “against a Jew and his wife.” 
These unfortunates, according to the governor’s 


28 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


testimony, had but recently arrived from Hol¬ 
land, where they had lived in handsome style, 
“even to keeping their coach,” but had been re¬ 
duced by misfortune. A Mr. Delaney appears to 
have been the leader in the assault, and he with 
several others, “with their faces blackened, 
and otherwise disguised, smashed all the win¬ 
dows, broke open the door and tore everything 
to pieces.” The outcome appears to have been 
more satisfactory to several members of the bar 
than to the unfortunate Hebrew, for Governor 
Clinton avers that “the Jew was advised to go 
to Mr. Murray, the attorney, for his opinion, 
who took a fee, and advised him not to take up 
the case, as the persons concerned were related 
to the principal people of the town. Mr. Cham¬ 
bers advised the like and told him he would be 
ruined if he proceeded against them. Mr. 
Smith advised the same.” 

The Jews in New York were not on a footing 
of political equality with Christians prior to the 
Devolution. By the first constitution of the 
State of New York, adopted in 1777, they were 
put on an absolute equality with all other citi¬ 
zens, New York having been the first State 
actually granting full religious liberty. 

From the period of the riot in 1749, to the 
Revolution there was but little increase in the 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 29 

Jewish population. A few additions were made 
by immigration from England, but not sufficient 
to counteract the emigration to Newport, 
Charleston, and Philadelphia. Though small 
they continued to be an influential body. The 
restriction acts of Parliament, and the general 
colonial policy pursued by the government, 
produced a disastrous effect upon business, and 
Hayman Levy, from his widely extended inter¬ 
ests, failed in 1768, but his assignees were 
enabled to discharge the whole of his indebted¬ 
ness with interest. The great fire in 1776 de¬ 
stroyed all his property, yet notwithstanding 
all, he carried on his fur business on his own 
account until his death in 1790. He traded 
early with the Indians, and a historian of that 
day claims that he was “actually worshipped 
by the red man.” John Jacob Astor acquired 
his first experience in the fur trade while in 
Levy’s employ. Upon his books are entries of 
moneys paid to John Jacob Astor, for beating 
furs, at one dollar a day. Nicholas Low, ances¬ 
tor of President Seth Low of Columbia College, 
served as Levy’s clerk for several years, and 
then laid the foundation of his great fortune in 
a hogshead of rum purchased from his former 
employer, who besides rendered him substantial 
assistance. 


30 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


Sampson Simson was another great Jew mer¬ 
chant and shipowner at this period. He was 
distinguished for his strict integrity and great 
liberality, and his patriotic resistance to the ag¬ 
gressive acts of the British government. He 
died in 1775. 

Ephraim Hart, a man of many friends and 
foremost in many enterprises, on the 17th of 
May, 1792, with twenty-one others organized 
the first board of stock brokers in the New York 
Stock Exchange. He was a State Senator in 
1810 and at the time of his death was a partner 
of John Jacob Astor. 

Bernard Hart, in Scovill’s “Old Merchants 
of New York,” in view of his distinguished com¬ 
mercial position, social distinction and great 
humanity, is spoken of as “towering aloft 
among the magnates of the city of the last and 
present generation.” During the prevalence of 
the yellow fever in New York in 1795 he worked 
night and day among the sick and dying, and 
was declared by a writer of the day “An angel 
of mercy in the awful days of that great pesti¬ 
lence.” He was the founder of “The Fairy,” 
the parent of our present clubs. Upon the for¬ 
mation of the Board of Brokers about 1818, he 
was made secretary of that body, and remained 
so until he died at the age of ninety-one. 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 31 

Mr. Scovill, himself a merchant, speaking of 
the small number of Jewish merchants in New 
York in the early part of the present century, 
and the great contrast at the period in which he 
was writing (1868) concludes with this remark: 
“There are now eighty thousand Israelites in 
this city, and it is the high standard of excel¬ 
lence of the old Israelite merchants of 1800 that 
has made the race occupy the proud position it 
now holds in this city and in the nation.” 

NEWPORT. 

Attracted by the tolerance of Roger Will¬ 
iams, a fugitive himself from persecution, and 
disheartened by Stuyvesant’s persistent perse¬ 
cutions, many Jews made their way to New¬ 
port, the Rhode Island historians say, as early 
as 1657. In 1652 the Colony of Rhode Island 
enacted that “all men of whatever nation soever 
they may be, that shall be received inhabitants 
of any of the towns, shall have the same privi¬ 
leges as Englishmen, any law to the contrary 
notwithstanding.” This made Rhode Island the 
place for all who sought religious liberty. For 
thirty years preceding our Revolutionary War 
Newport was one of the principal cities in the 
American colonies, in commercial importance 
ranking with Boston and Philadelphia, for 


32 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


Edward Eggleston tells us that “he was thought 
a bold prophet who then said that ‘New York 
might one day equal Newport,’ ” for, about 1750, 
New York sent forth fewer ships than Newport, 
and just half as many as Boston. 

Roger Williams, the pioneer of religious 
liberty in America, founded his colony on prin¬ 
ciples which unmistakably included the Jews: 

“There goes many a ship to sea with many 
hundred souls in one ship, whose weal and woe 
is common, and is a true picture of a common¬ 
wealth, or human combination, or society. It 
hath fallen out sometimes, that both Papists 
and Protestants, Jews and Turks, may be em¬ 
barked in one ship, upon which supposal I 
affirm, that all the liberty of conscience that 
ever I pleaded for turns upon these two hinges, 
that none of the Papists, Protestants, Jews or 
Turks be forced to come to the ship’s prayer or 
worship, or compelled from their own particular 
prayers or worship, if they practice any.” 

In his famous argument for the readmission 
of the Jews to England, he said: “By the merci¬ 
ful assistance of the Most High, I have desired 
to labor in Europe, in America, with English, 
with barbarians, yea, and also I have longed 
after some trading with Jews themselves, for 
whose hard measure, I fear the nations and Eng- 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 33 


land have yet a score to pay. I desire not that 
liberty to myself, which I would not freely and 
impartially weigh out to all the consciences of 
the world besides. All these consciences (yea, 
the very consciences of the Papists, Jews, etc., 
as I have proved at large in my answer to Mas¬ 
ter Cotton’s washings) ought freely and impar¬ 
tially to be permitted their several respective 
worships, and what manner of maintaining 
them, they freely choose.” 

It was this fair treatment of the Jews under 
Roger Williams which caused the Puritan, Cot¬ 
ton Mather, in his “Magnalia” to characterize 
Newport as “the common receptacle of the con¬ 
victs of Jerusalem and the outcasts of the land.” 

From Spain, Portugal, Jamaica, Holland and 
other places a most distinguished class of mer¬ 
chants came, making Newport the formidable 
commercial rival of New York, and with the de¬ 
parture of the Jews from Newport it ceased to 
be commercially important. A volume might be 
written concerning the Jewish merchant 
princes of Newport of the pre-revolutionary 
period—of their matchless enterprise, their great 
wealth, their eminent respectability, their re¬ 
markable intelligence, their irreproachable in¬ 
tegrity, their delicate sense of mercantile honor, 


and their unbounded 
kind. 



34 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


“The Jewish cemetery at Newport,” laid out 
in 1677, has been memorialized by Longfellow: 

How strange it seems! These Hebrews in their graves, 

Close by the street of this fair seaport town, 

Silent beside the never-silent waves, 

At rest in all this moving up and down. 

The trees are white with dust, that o’er their sleep 
Wave their broad curtains in the south-wind’s breath, 

While underneath these tents they keep 
The long mysterious Exodus of Death. 

And these sepulchral stones, so old and brown, 

That pave with level flags their burial place. 

Seem like the tablets of the Law, thrown down 
And broken by Moses at the mountain’s base. 

The very names recorded here are strange, 

Of foreign accent, and of different climes: 

Alvares and Rivera interchange 
With Abraham and Jacob of old times. 

“ Blessed be God! for he created Death! ” 

The mourner said, “and Death is rest and peace/' 

Then added, in the certainty of faith, 

“And giveth Life that nevermore shall cease.” 

Closed are the portals of their Synagogue, 

No Psalms of David now the silence break, 

No Rabbi reads the ancient Decalogue 
In the grand dialect the Prophets spaka 

Gone are the living, but the dead remain, 

And not neglected; for a hand unseen, 

Scattering its bounty, like a summer rain, 

Still keeps their graves and their remembrance green. 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 35 


How came they here? What burst of Christian hate! 

What persecution, merciless and blind. 

Drove o’er the sea—that desert desolate— 

These Ishmaels and Hagars of mankind? 

They lived in narrow streets and lanes obscure, 

Ghetto and Judenstrass, in mirk and mire; 

Taught in the school of patience to endure 
The life of anguish and the death of fire. 

All their lives long, with the unleavened bread 
And bitter herbs of exile and its fears, 

The wasting famine of the heart they fed, 

And slaked its thirst with marsh of their tears. 

Anathema maranatha! was the cry 

That rang from town to town, from street to street; 

At every gate the accursed Mordecai 
Was mocked and jeered, and spurned by Christian feet. 

Pride and humiliation hand in hand 
Walked with them through the world where’er they went- 

Trampled and beaten were they as the sand, 

And yet unshaken as the continent. 

For in the the background figures vague and vast 
Of patriarchs and of prophets rose sublime, 

And all the great traditions of the past 
They saw reflected in the coming time. 

And thus forever with reverted look 
The mystic volume of the world they read, 

Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book, 

Till life became a Legend of the Dead. 

But ah! what once has been shall be no more! 

The groaning earth in travail and in pain 

Brings forth its races, but does not restore, 

And the dead nations never rise again. 


36 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


In August, 1790, George Washington visited 
Newport and was entertained at the home of 
Moses Isaacs, who sided with the colonies dur¬ 
ing the Revolutionary War. This visit evoked 
the following letter, signed by Moses Seixas on 
behalf of the Newport congregation: 

“Sie: Permit the children of the stock of 
Abraham to approach you with the most cordial 
affection and esteem for your person and merit, 
and to join with our fellow-citizens in welcom¬ 
ing you to Newport. 

“With pleasure we reflect on those days of 
difficulty and danger when the God of Israel, 
who delivered David from the peril of the sword, 
shielded your head in the day of battle; and we 
rejoice to think that the same spirit which 
rested in the bosom of the greatly beloved Dan¬ 
iel, enabling him to preside over the province of 
the Babylonian empire, rests and ever will rest 
upon you, enabling you to discharge the 
arduous duties of the chief magistrate of these 
States. 

“Deprived as we hitherto have been of the in¬ 
valuable rights of free citizens, we now—with 
a deep sense of gratitude to the Almighty Dis¬ 
poser of all events—behold a government erected 
by the majesty of the people, a government 
which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecu¬ 
tion no assistance, but generously affording to 
all liberty of conscience and immunities of 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 37 


citizenship, deeming every one of whatever 
nation, tongue, and language equal parts of the 
great government machine. 

“This so ample and extensive Federal Union, 
whose base is philanthropy, mutual confidence 
and public virtue, we cannot but acknowledge 
to be the work of the great God who rules in 
the armies of the heavens and among the inhab¬ 
itants of the earth, doing whatever seemeth to 
Him good. 

“For all the blessings, civil and religious, 
which we enjoy under an equal benign admin¬ 
istration, we desire to send up our thanks to 
the Ancient Days, the great Preserver of men, 
beseeching that the angel who conducted our 
forefathers through the wilderness into the 
promised land may graciously conduct you 
through all difficulties and dangers of this mor¬ 
tal life; and when, like Joshua, full of days and 
full of honors, you are gathered to your fathers, 
may you be admitted into the heavenly paradise 
to partake of the water of life and the tree of 
immortality. 

“Done and signed by order of the Hebrew 
Congregation in Newport, Pt. I. 

“Moses Seixas, Warden. 

‘Newport, August 17, 1790.” 

Washington’s reply to the Hebrew congrega¬ 
tion in Newport, R. I.: 

“Gentlemen: While I receive with much sat- 


38 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


isfaction your address replete with expres¬ 
sions of esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of 
assuring you that I shall always retain grateful 
remembrance of the cordial welcome I experi¬ 
enced on my visit to Newport from all classes 
of citizens. 

“The reflection on the days of difficulty and 
danger which are past is rendered the more 
sweet from a consciousness that they are suc¬ 
ceeded by days of uncommon prosperity and 
security. 

“If we have wisdom to make the best use of 
the advantages with which we are now favored, 
we cannot fail, under the just administration of 
a good government, to become a great and 
happy people. 

“The citizens of the United States of America 
have a right to applaud themselves for having 
given to mankind examples of an enlarged and 
liberal policy, a policy worthy of imitation. All 
possess alike liberty of conscience and immu¬ 
nities of citizenship. 

“It is now no more that toleration is spoken of 
as if it were by the indulgence of one class of 
people that another enjoyed the exercise of their 
inherent natural rights, for, happily, the gov¬ 
ernment of the United States, which gives to 
bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, 
requires only that they who live under its pro¬ 
tection should demean themselves as good citi¬ 
zens in giving it on all occasions their effectual 
support. 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 39 

“It would be inconsistent with the frankness 
of my character not to avow that I am pleased 
with your favorable opinion of my administra¬ 
tion, and fervent wishes for my felicity. 

“May the children of the stock of Abraham 
who dwell in this land continue to merit and 
enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants, 
while every one shall sit in safety under his 
own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none 
to make him afraid. 

“May the Father of all mercies scatter light, 
and not darkness, upon our paths and make us 
all in our several vocations useful here, and in 
his own due time and way, everlastingly happy. 

“G. Washington.” 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

The Jews of Philadelphia distinguished them¬ 
selves as warm adherents of the American Rev¬ 
olution. Their patriotism forms an interesting 
chapter elsewhere in this volume. 

The first documentary evidence regarding the 
settlement of Jews in Philadelphia dates from 
the year 1726, although it is known that Jews 
settled in Lancaster, York and Easton as early 
as 1655. 

In 1662 the Mennonites drew up articles of as¬ 
sociation, their object “being to establish a 
harmonious society of persons of different reli¬ 
gious sentiments, it was determined to exclude 


40 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


from it all intractable people, such as those in 
communion with the Roman See; usurious 
Jews; stiff-necked English Quakers; Puritans; 
foolhardy believers in the millennium, and ob¬ 
stinate modern pretenders to revelation.” 

Evidently there were Jews in Pennsylvania at 
least twenty-five years prior to the landing of 
William Penn. 


BALTIMORE. 

Mr. J. H. Hollander finds in the Provincial 
Court Record of Maryland, mention of one 
Mathias de Sousa. Isaac Markens says, “There 
resided in that province as early as 1658 one 
Jacob Lumbrozo, late of Lisbone, in the 
Kingdom of Portugal, who was known as ‘ye 
Jew doctor.’” Lumbrozo was committed for 
blasphemy in the year mentioned and in the 
year 1663 he was granted letters of “deniza- 
cion.” In 1665 he received a commission to 
trade with the Indians. 

Bancroft has referred to Maryland as among 
the first colonies which “adopted religious free¬ 
dom as the basis of the State.” But its reli¬ 
gious freedom was limited to those within the 
province who believed in Jesus Christ, and was 
accompanied by a proviso which declared that 
any person who denied the Trinity should be 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 41 

punished with death. Maryland was therefore no 
place for a Jew. Even after the Revolution, 
though under the Constitution of the United 
States, a Jew was eligible to any office, no one 
could hold any office under the government of 
Maryland without signing a declaration that 
he believed in the Christian religion. In 1801, 
and again in 1804, earnest efforts were made in 
the legislature to repeal this intolerant provis¬ 
ion, but failed to pass upon each occasion, more 
than two-thirds of the members voting against 
its repeal. In 1818, after a three days’ debate, 
the bill favoring the removal of these disabili¬ 
ties was again defeated by a vote twenty-four 
against fifty. 

After the rejection of the “Jew Bill,” the 
following verses appeared in the Franklin 
Gazette , Philadelphia: 


What! still reject the fated race, 
Thus long denied repose— 
What! madly striving to efface 
The rights that heaven bestows. 


Say, flows not in each Jewish vein, 
Unchecked—without control— 

A tide as pure—as free from stain— 
As warms the Christian’s soul? 


42 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


Do ye not yet the times discern. 

That these shall cease to roam— 

That Shiloh, pledged for their return, 

Will bring his ransomed home? 

Be error, quick, to darkness hurl’d! 

No more with hate pursue— 

For He who died to save a world— 

Immanuel—was a Jew. 

On February 26,1825, the bill according to the 
Jew his full civil rights was passed by both 
houses of the Legislature. It was ratified at 
the succeeding session and became a law. 

SAVANNAH. 

On the 7th of July, 1733, a party of forty Jews 
sailed up the Savannah River on a vessel direct 
from London, arriving in the very midst of a 
public dinner given by Oglethorpe, who had as¬ 
sembled the colonists for the purpose of allot¬ 
ting to each settler his proportion of land, and of 
organizing a local government. 

In spite of much determined opposition to the 
newcomers, the benevolent Oglethorpe be¬ 
friended the Jews, wrote to England praising 
their enterprise and worth, calling special atten¬ 
tion to one of their number, Dr. Nunes, for his 
attention to the sick and other valuable serv¬ 
ices. Another of their number was Abraham de 
Lyon, a horticulturist, who was the first in this 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 43 

country to introduce successfully useful foreign 
plants. 

It was the industry and intelligence of the 
Jews, and the subsequent arrivals of a few 
Moravians and Highlanders from Scotland, who 
made a success of Oglethorpe’s scheme, for it is 
a well-known fact that the colonists were idle, 
dissolute, mutinous and unwilling to protect the 
colony from the Spaniards, who threatened its 
destruction. 

With the departure of Oglethorpe from Geor¬ 
gia, and on account of the persistent hostility 
of the trustees of the London Company, sub¬ 
jected not only to civil disabilities, but with the 
rest of the population, to unreasonable demands, 
many Jews gradually moved from Savannah and 
settled in the rising city of 

CHARLESTON. 

On the day following the Jewish New Year, 
1750, the first Hebrew Congregation was formed 
in Charleston. In 1790, Jacob Cohen, president of 
the Hebrew Congregation, addressed a lengthy 
congratulatory letter to Washington on his ele¬ 
vation to the presidency, in which among other 
things he said: 

“When laudable ambition had nothing more 


44 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


to tempt you with; when fame had weaned 
itself in trumpeting your renown; yielding to 
the disinterested impulses of uniform protesta¬ 
tions, and the urgent invocations of your fellow- 
citizens, you quitted your peaceful and pleasur¬ 
able mansion to involve yourself in the cares 
and fatigues which now throng on you; and you 
have shown yourself eminently qualified to 
preside at the helm of government, as at the 
head of armies. While historians of this and 
every age shall vie with each other in doing 
justice to your character, and in adorning their 
pages with the splendor of your endowments, 
and of your patriotic and noble achievements; 
and while they cull and combine the various 
good and shining qualities of the pagan and 
modern heroes to display your character, we, 
and our posterity, will not cease to chronicle and 
commemorate you, with Moses, Joshua, Daniel, 
Gideon, Samuel, David, Maccabeus, and other 
holy men of old, who were raised up by God for 
the deliverance of our nation, His people, from 
their oppression. May the Great Being, our 
universal Lord, continue propitious to you and 
to the United States; perfect and give increase 
and duration of prosperity to the great empire 
of which He has made you so instrumental in 
producing. May He grant you health to preside 
over the same, until He shall, after length of 
days, call you to eternal felicity, which will be 
the reward of your virtues in the next, as lasting 
glory must be in this world.” 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 45 

In the fire of 1838 the original of Washing¬ 
ton’s reply was destroyed and no copy can be 
obtained. It may be interesting in this connec¬ 
tion to add the remaining correspondence be¬ 
tween Hebrew citizens and George Washington. 

“The address of the Hebrew Congregation of 
Savannah, Georgia, to George Washington, the 
first President of the United States,’’ presented 
by Mr. Jackson, one of the representatives from 
Georgia: 

“Sir: We have long been anxious of congrat¬ 
ulating you on your appointment by unanimous 
approbation to the presidential dignity of this 
country and of testifying our unbounded confi¬ 
dence in your integrity and unblemished vir¬ 
tue. Yet, however exalted the station you now 
fill, it is still not equal to the merit of your 
heroic services through an arduous and danger¬ 
ous conflict which has embosomed you in the 
hearts of her citizens. 

“Our eccentric situation, added to a diffidence 
founded on the most profound respect, has thus 
long prevented our address; yet the delay has 
realized anticipation, given us an opportunity of 
presenting our grateful acknowledgments for 
the benediction of Heaven through the magna¬ 
nimity of federal influence and the equity of 
your administration. 

“Your unexampled liberality and extensive 
philanthropy have dispelled that cloud of big- 


46 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


otry and superstition which has long, as a veil, 
shaded religion — unriveted the fetters of 
enthusiasm—enfranchised us with all the privi¬ 
leges and immunities of free citizens, and ini¬ 
tiated us into the grand mass of legislative 
mechanism. By example you have taught us 
to endure the ravages of war with manly forti¬ 
tude, and to enjoy the blessings of peace with 
reverence to the Deity and with benignity and 
love to our fellow-creatures. 

“May the Great Author of the world grant 
you all happiness, an uninterrupted series of 
health, addition of years to the number of your 
days, and a continuance of guardianship to that 
freedom which under auspices of Heaven your 
magnanimity and wisdom have given these 
States. 

“Levi Sheftall, President. 

“In behalf of the Hebrew Congregations.” 

To which the President was pleased to return 
the following reply: 

(Printed in Jared Sparks’ Collection, vol. xii. 
p. 185.) 

“To the Hebrew Congregation of the city of 
Savannah, Georgia. 

“Gentlemen: I thank you with great sin¬ 
cerity for your congratulations on my appoint¬ 
ment to the office which I have the honor to 
hold by the unanimous choice of my fellow- 
citizens, and especially the expressions you are 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 47 

pleased to use in testifying the confidence that 
is reposed in me by your congregation. 

“As the delay which has naturally intervened 
between my election and your address has 
afforded me an opportunity for appreciating the 
merits of the federal government and for com¬ 
municating your sentiments of its administra¬ 
tion, I have rather to express my satisfaction 
rather than regret at a circumstance which 
demonstrates (upon experiment) your attach¬ 
ment to the former as well as approbation of 
the latter. 

“I rejoice that a spirit of liberality and phi¬ 
lanthropy is much more prevalent than it for¬ 
merly was among the enlightened nations of the 
earth, and that your brethren will benefit there¬ 
by in proportion as it shall become still more 
extensive; happily the people of the United 
States have, in many instances, exhibited ex¬ 
amples worthy of imitation, the salutary in¬ 
fluence of which will doubtless extend much 
further if gratefully enjoying those blessings of 
peace which (under the favor of Heaven) have 
been attained by fortitude in war, they shall 
conduct themselves with reverence to the Deity 
and charity toward their fellow-creatures. 

“May the same wonder-working Deity, who 
long since delivered the Hebrews from their 
Egyptian oppressors, planted them in a prom¬ 
ised land, whose providential agency has lately 
been conspicuous in establishing these United 
States as an independent nation, still continue 


48 


JUSTICE TO TIIE JEW. 


to water them with the dew of heaven and make 
the inhabitants of every denomination partici¬ 
pate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of 
that people whose God is Jehovah. 

“G. Washington.” 

The address of the Hebrew Congregations in 
the cities of Philadelphia, New York, Richmond, 
and Charleston, to the President of the United 
States: 

“Sir: It is reserved for you to unite in affec¬ 
tion for your character and person every politi¬ 
cal and religious denomination of men, and in 
this will the Hebrew congregations aforesaid 
yield to no class of their fellow-citizens. 

“We have hitherto been prevented by various 
circumstances peculiar to our situation from 
adding our congratulations to those which the 
rest of America have offered on your elevation 
to the chair of the federal government. Deign, 
then, illustrious sir, to accept this our homage. 

“The wonders which the Lord of Hosts hath 
worked in the days of our forefathers have 
taught us to observe the greatness of His wis¬ 
dom and His might through the events of the 
late glorious revolution; and, while we humble 
ourselves at His footstool in thanksgiving and 
praise for the blessing of His deliverance, we 
acknowledge you, the leader of American 
armies, as His chosen and beloved servant. But 
not to your sword alone is present happiness to 


JEWISH PRE-REVOLUTIONARY SETTLEMENTS. 49 

be ascribed; that, indeed, opened the way to 
freedom, but never was it perfectly secure until 
your hand gave birth to the Federal Constitution 
and you renounced the joys of retirement to 
seal by your administration in peace what you 
had achieved in war. 

“To the eternal God, who is thy refuge, we 
commit in our prayers the care of thy precious 
life; and when, full of years, thou shalt be 
gathered unto thy people, ‘thy righteousness 
shall go before thee,’ and we shall remember, 
amid our regret,‘that the Lord hath set apart 
the godly for Himself,’ whilst thy name and thy 
virtues will remain an indelible memorial on our 
minds. 

“For and in behalf and under the authority 
of the several congregations aforesaid. 

“Manuel Josephson. 

“Philadelphia, December 13, 1790.” 

The President was pleased to reply to the 
foregoing as follows: 

“Answer: To the Hebrew Congregations in 
the cities of Philadelphia, New York, Charles¬ 
ton, and Kichmond: 

“Gentlemen: The liberality of sentiment to¬ 
ward each other, which marks every political 
and religious denomination of men in this coun¬ 
try, stands unparalleled in the history of na¬ 
tions. 

“The affection of such a people is a treasure 
beyond the reach of calculation, and the re- 


50 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


peated proofs which my fellow-citizens have 
given of their attachment to me and approbation 
of my doings, form the purest source of my 
temporal felicity. The affectionate expressions 
of your address again excite my gratitude and 
receive my warmest acknowledgment. 

“The power and goodness of the Almighty, 
so strongly manifested in the events of our late 
glorious Revolution, and His kind interposition 
in our behalf, have been no less visible in the 
establishment of our present equal government. 
In war He directed the sword, and in peace He 
has ruled in our councils. My agency in both 
has been guided by the best intentions and a 
sense of duty I owe to my country. 

“And as my exertions have hitherto been 
amply rewarded by the approbation of my fel¬ 
low-citizens, I shall endeavor to deserve a con¬ 
tinuance of it by my future conduct. 

“May the same temporal and eternal bless¬ 
ings which you implore for me rest upon your 
congregations. 

“G. Washington.” 


The Number and Distribution of the Jews. 


The world has by this time discovered that it is impossible to 
destroy the Jews. The attempt to extirpate them has been made 
under the most favorable auspices and on the largest scale; the 
most considerable means that man could command have been 
pertinaciously applied to this object for the longest period of re¬ 
corded time. Egyptian pharaohs, Assyrian kings, Roman 
emperors, Scandinavian crusaders, Gothic princes and holy in¬ 
quisitors have alike devoted their energies to the fulfillment of 
this common purpose. Expatriation, exile, captivity, confisca¬ 
tion, torture on the most ingenious and massacre on the most 
extensive scale; a curious system of degrading customs and 
debasing laws which would have broken the heart of another 
people, have been tried and in vain. The Jews, after all this 
havoc, probably more numerous at this date than they were 
during the reign of Solomon the Wise, are found in all lands, and 
prospering in most. All which proves that it is in vain for man 
to attempt to baffle the inexorable law of Nature, which has 
decreed that a superior race shall never be destroyed or absorbed 
by an inferior,— Lord Beaconsfield. 


NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE JEWS. 53 


CHAPTER II. 

THE NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE JEWS. 

Two countries only in Europe deny to Jews 
the rights accorded to Christians; but these 
two countries, Russia, with 4,500,000 Jews—a 
legacy from Poland, which toward the end of 
the Middle Ages became the center of Israel— 
and Roumania with 300,000, contain more Jews 
than all the rest of Europe together. So that 
nearly half of the descendants of Abraham are 
still subject to special laws and denied the 
rights of citizenship. 

Austro-Hungary has 1,860,186 Jews, Ger¬ 
many, 567,884, of whom two-thirds inhabit the 
Kingdom of Prussia. England and Wales, 97,- 
350; Scotland, 2,060; Ireland, 1,779; Australia, 
15,268; Canada, 6,414; Trinidad, 31; Barba- 
does, 21; Cape Colony, 3,009; India, 17,185; 
Aden, 2,826; Gibraltar, 1,000; Hong Kong, 143; 
Straits Settlement, 535; Malta, 173; Cyprus, 
127; making a grand total in the British Empire 
of 148,017. Holland, 97,324, one-half of whom 
are to be found in Amsterdam; France, 72,000, 


54 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

of whom three-fourths live in Paris; Italy, 50,- 
000, of whom the majority inhabit the northern 
and middle portions of the country. There are 
8,069 Jews in Switzerland; Belgium, 3,000; 
Denmark, 4,080; Sweden, 3,042; Norway, 
hardly any; Luxembourg, 1,000; Spain, 2,500, 
and Portugal, 300, where, prior to the fifteenth 
century, there lived perhaps half a million Israel¬ 
ites. 

In Eastern Europe, in addition to Boumania, 
there are Turkey with 120,000; Greece, 5,792, 
most of them in Corfu; Bulgaria, 20,000; Ser- 
via, 4,652. In Asia, the cradle of their race, we 
find, in Turkey in Asia, 150,000; Persia, 30,000; 
Russia in Asia, 47,000; Turkestan, Afghani¬ 
stan, 140,000; and China, 2,000. 

In Africa, which they had colonized before the 
Christian Era, we find 25,000 in Egypt; Abysin- 
nian Falashas, 300,000; Tripoli, 60,000; Tunis, 
55,000; Algeria and Sahara, 60,000; Morocco, 
200,000; South Africa, 20,000. 

G. Bie Ravndal, United States Consul at 
Beirut, reports to the Department of State that 
out of a total population in Palestine of some 
200,000, about 40,000 are Jews, as against 14,000 
twenty years ago. In Jerusalem there are 22,000 
Jews, half of whom have immigrated from Eu¬ 
rope and America, and are called Aschkenazim 


NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE JEWS. 55 

to distinguish them from the Spanish and Orien¬ 
tal Israelites, the Sephardim. After mentioning 
in detail a number of colonies, which have been 
established during the last twenty years, and 
stating the present prosperous condition of most 
of them, the report says: 

“Entirely irrespective of whether or not the 
Zionists will succeed in awakening in the Jew¬ 
ish people a national spirit and forming a Ju¬ 
dean monarchy or republic, with its parliament 
in Jerusalem and its representation in foreign 
capitals, the present agitation makes for the 
development'of a country which is but a shadow 
of its former self, and which will generously 
respond to modern influences. The Sultan 
seems quite disposed to grant railway, harbor 
and other franchises, and it is possible that the 
new Jewish Colonial Bank, the organization of 
which was decided upon in Basel, will be per¬ 
mitted, under certain guarantees, to play an 
important part in the industrial advancement 
and growth of Palestine. The movement is 
furthermore bringing out new qualities in the 
Jews residing in Palestine. They are no longer 
content with studying the Talmud and living on 
charity, but are waking to the fact, as the 
Hebrew would put it, that to till the ground is 
worship of God. 


56 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


“I think I am justified in saying that the 
prospects are brighter than ever for the Jews in 
Palestine and for Palestine itself. European 
influence has obtained a foothold in the country, 
and the tide of modern ideas cannot be long 
debarred. Only four or five weeks ago an Eng¬ 
lish company announced its determination to 
build a broad-gauge railway from the sea at 
Haifa through the very heart of Samaria and 
Galilee to Damascus and on to Bagdad, and 
active operations have already commenced.” 

In the United States there are 937,800 Jews, 
and in all the world to-day there are probably 11 ,- 
000,000 of Jews, 4,000,000 more than there were 
in the time of David. At no period was Israel so 
widely scattered. Never before have there ex¬ 
isted so many Jews. Everywhere they are on 
the increase. As they are growing in numbers 
and importance, jealousy and hatred against 
them increase. And what produces jealousy? 
The excellence of another. Jealousy is a high, 
if not a gracious compliment. 


The Growth of Jewish Population in the 
United States. 


There is a river in the ocean; in the severest droughts it never 
fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows. The Gulf of 
Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic seas. It is the 
Gulf Stream. There is in the world no other such majestic flow 
of waters. Its current is more rapid than the Mississippi or the 
Amazon, and its volume more than a thousand times greater. 
Its waters, as far out from the gulf as the Carolina coasts, are of 
an indigo blue; they are so distinctly marked that their line of 
junction with the common sea water may be traced by the eye. 
Often one-half of a vessel may be perceived floating in Gulf Stream 
water, while the other half is in common water of the sea, so 
sharp is the line and such the want of affinity between those 
waters, and such too the reluctance, so to speak, on the part of 
those of the Gulf Stream to mingle with the common water of 
the sea.— Prof. M. F. Maury. 

This curious phenomenon in the physical world has its counter¬ 
part in the moral. There is a lonely river in the midst of the 
ocean of mankind. The mightiest floods of human temptation 
have never caused it to overflow and the fiercest fires of human 
cruelty, though seven times heated in the furnace of religious 
bigotry, have never caused it to dry up, although its waves for 
two thousand years have rolled crimson with the blood of its 
martyrs. Its fountain is in the gray dawn of the world’s history, 
and its mouth is somewhere in the shadows of eternity. It too 
refuses to mingle with the surrounding waves, and the line which 
divides its restless billows from the common waters of humanity 
is also plainly visible to the eye. It is the Jewish race.— Zebulon 
B. Vance. 


GROWTH OF JEWISH POPULATION. 


59 


CHAPTER III. 

THE GROWTH OF JEWISH POPULATION IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 

At the time of the Revolution the Jewish 
population in the United States was about 700 
families. The first census, 1790, gave the number 
of Jewish inhabitants as about 3,000. Mordecai 
M. Noah, in 1818, estimated the Jewish popu¬ 
lation of the United States at 3,000. After the 
Revolution many returned to England, others 
went to the West Indies. Isaac Harby and 
Solomon Etting, in 1826, estimated that there 
were not over 6,000 Jews in the United States. 
The “American Almanac” of 1840 gives the 
number of Jews in the United States as 15,000. 
Berk’s “History of the Jews,” published in 
1848, makes it appear that there were then 
“50,000 Jews in the United States, 12,000 resid¬ 
ing in New York and 4,000 in Philadelphia.” In 
1846 Rev. Isaac Leeser placed the figures for 
New York at 10,000, Philadelphia, 1,800, and 
Baltimore, 1,500. 

Throughout the period of the Napoleonic 
wars many obstacles hindered the departure of 


60 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

the German Jews, and for a time afterward in 
view of the great political concessions which 
they gained from the German rulers in return 
for their valor and heroic sacrifices of life and 
substance for the Fatherland, there was little 
immigration. It was not until the beginning of 
steam navigation on the Atlantic that any con¬ 
siderable Jewish immigration was made to this 
country. 

According to the report made May 28, 1877, 
by the Board of Delegates of American Israel¬ 
ites, with the assistance of the Union of Ameri¬ 
can Hebrew Congregations, there was then a 
total Jewish population in the United States of 
189,576. In September, 1880, the Union of 
American Hebrew Congregations published the 
following statistics of the Jews in the United 


States: 


State or Territory. 

Population. 

State or Territory. 

Population. 

Alabama. 

. . 2,045 

Maryland. 

. 337 

Arizona. 

48 

Baltimore. 

. 10,000 

Arkansas. 

. . 1,466 

Massachusetts.... 

. 8,500 

California. 

.. 18,580 

Michigan. 

. 3,233 

Colorado. 

422 

Minnesota. 

. 414 

Connecticut. 

.. 1,492 

Mississippi. 

. 2,262 

Dakota.’' * *. • 

19 

Missouri. 

. 7,380 

Delaware. 

585 

Montana. 

. 131 

District of Columbia.. 

.. 1,508 

Nebraska. 

. 222 

Florida. 

772 

Nevada. 

. 780 

Georgia. 

.. 2,704 

New Hampshire.. 

. 150 

Idaho. 

85 

New Jersey. 

. 5,593 

Illinois. 

.. 12,625 

New Mexico. 

. 108 

Indiana. 

.. 3,381 

New York State... 

. 20,565 





























GROWTH OF JEWISH POPULATION. 


61 


State or Territory. 

Population. 

State or Territory. Population. 

Iowa. 

. 1,245 

New York City. 

. 60,000 

Kansas. 

. 819 

North Carolina. 

820 

Kentucky. 

. 8,602 

Ohio. 

. 6,581 

Louisiana. 

. 7,588 

Oregon. 

. 868 

Maine. 

. 500 

Pennsylvania. 

. 6,079 

Philadelphia. 

. 12,000 

Virginia. 

. 2,506 

Rhode Island. 

. 1,000 

Washington Territory. 

145 

South Carolina.... 

. 1,415 

West Virginia. 

511 

Tennessee. 

. 3,751 

Wisconsin. 

. 2,559 

Texas. 

. 3,300 

Wyoming. 

40 

Utah. 

258 



Vermont. 

. 120 

Total. 

.221,064 


According to the conservative estimate of 
David Sulzberger, the following is the Jewish 
population of the United States in 1897: 


Alabama. 

.. 6,000 

Montana. 

. .. 2,500 

Arizona. 

.. 2,000 

Nebraska. 

. .. 2,000 

Arkansas. 

,. 4,000 

Nevada. 

.... 2,500 

California. 

.. 35,000 

New Hampshire.... 

.... 1,000 

Colorado. 

. 1,500 

New Jersey. 

.... 25,000 

Connecticut. 

.. 6,000 

New Mexico . 

.... 2,000 

N. and S. Dakota. 

. 3,500 

New York. 

....350,000 

Delaware. 

.. 3,000 

North Carolina. 

.... 12,000 

District of Columbia... 

,. 3,500 

Ohio. 

.... 50,000 

Florida. 

. 2,500 

Oregon. 

.... 6,000 

Georgia. 

.. 7,000 

Pennsylvania. 

. .. 85,000 

Idaho. 

.. 2,000 

Rhode Island. 

.... 3,500 

Illinois. 

. 85,000 

South Carolina. ... 

.... 8,000 

Indiana.. 

.. 15,000 

Tennessee. 

.... 15,000 

Iowa. 

.. 5,000 

Texas. 

.... 12,000 

Kansas. 

. 3,500 

Utah. 

.... 5,000 

Kentucky. 

.. 12,000 

Vermont. 

.... 1,000 

Louisiana. 

.. 20,000 

Virginia. 

.... 18,000 

Maine. 

.. 1,000 

Washington. 

.... 2,800 

Maryland. 

. 35,000 

West Virginia. 

.... 6,000 

Massachusetts. 

.. 20,000 

Wisconsin. 

.... 10,000 

Michigan. 

Minnesota. 

. 9,000 

. 6,000 

Wyoming. 

.... 1,000 

Mississippi. 

Missouri. 

. 5,000 
. 25,000 

Total. 

... .937,800 












































































Patriotism of the European Jew, 


When men unite together in society they combine for the pro¬ 
motion of common objects; they are bound to make common 
exertions to sustain common burdens, and, along with the liabil¬ 
ity to these exertions and burdens for the attainment of that com¬ 
mon purpose, they should be equally eligible to common honors 
and privileges. It seems to me that, as well on the grounds of 
expediency as on high moral grounds, this principle should be 
enforced. Let society be formed upon what principle it may, 
whether the rule of association be drawn from natural religion, 
or revealed religion, we are bound together by every tie, and by 
every consideration of justice, to take heed that our own par¬ 
ticular differences of opinion should not be unnecessarily ob¬ 
truded, and that, therefore, offices, situations, and privileges 
which do not involve the points on which such differences turn, 
should be common property. To deny privileges to any class of 
persons, on the ground that they are a small minority, is oppres¬ 
sion ; to deny them on the ground of a particular religious creed 
is persecution, and both oppression and persecution are alike for¬ 
bidden by the religion we profess—a religion which is founded 
on the principle of peace and good-will to all mankind.— Robert 
Grant, when in 1833, he urged upon the House of Commons the 
removal of all Jews’ disabilities which then existed. 


PATRIOTISM OF THE EUROPEAN JEW. 


65 


CHAPTER IY. 

PATRIOTISM OF THE EUROPEAN JEW. 

One of the gravest charges ever brought 
against the Jew is that he is not and cannot be 
a patriot. A distinguished English writer 
some years ago declared: “The Jews have now 
been everywhere made voters; to make them 
patriots while they remain genuine Jews is be¬ 
yond the legislator’s power.” 

In a Catechism for the Jewish youth of Eng¬ 
land, written by Ascher, which I presume is 
yet in use there, we find the following: 

“Has the Jew a fatherland besides Jeru¬ 
salem?” 

“Yes, the country wherein he is bred and 
born, and in which he has the liberty to practice 
his religion, and where he is allowed to carry 
on traffic and trade, and to enjoy all the advan¬ 
tages and protection of the law, in common 
with the citizens of other creeds, this country 
the Israelite is bound to acknowledge as his 
fatherland, to the benefit of which he must do 
his best to contribute. The sovereign who 


66 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


rules over this land is (after God) his sovereign; 
its laws, so long as they are not contradictory 
to the Divine Law, are also the Israelite’s laws; 
and the duties of his fellow-citizens are also his 
duties.” 

This catechism was written by a “strict” Jew 
and for the “genuine” Jewish youth. 

Until very recently, during the present cen¬ 
tury, the Jews were rarely ever permitted the 
opportunity of fighting for their country, but 
whenever they have been allowed to enter the 
lists they have proved that the contumely 
heaped upon them had not quenched their man¬ 
hood. What spiritual courage it required for 
the whole race to survive at all during fifteen 
centuries of the most relentless and diabolical 
persecutions and burnings at the stake which 
might have been avoided by the simple act of 
baptism! With historical accuracy and burn¬ 
ing indignation, Dr. Isaac Schwab thus por¬ 
trays the cruelty which the Jew suffered, and 
the ignominy heaped upon him in the Middle 
Ages: 

“The best meaning emperors and citizens 
were generally unable to prevent and some¬ 
times even to suppress these persecutions. The 
‘holy warriors’ gave the Jews the alternative of 
conversion or death, or simply plundered them 


PATRIOTISM OF THE EUROPEAN JEW. 67 

under the pretext of their being outlawed ene¬ 
mies of Christ. Count Emicho had in the first 
crusade alone appropriated 12,000 ducats of the 
Jews’ money. The Archbishop of Mayence 
himself was believed to have shared in the 
spoils of the then plundered Jews of that city. 
Some of his near relatives were on solid testi¬ 
mony held to account for participating in that 
robbery by Henry IV., who, on his return to 
the empire in 1098 was earnestly intent on all 
possible restitution being made to the Jews who 
had lost so much in the bloody raids, or were 
the heirs of the victims two years before. 
Even the property of the Jews yielding to con¬ 
version forced on them in these benighted 
times was not always safe. Some kings and 
princes losing through their conversion the reg¬ 
ular Jewish revenue, sought to indemnify them¬ 
selves by confiscation of their property though 
they were now nominal Christians. This was a 
short and easy financial process, as was that of 
the Kings John and Henry III., of England, the 
former imprisoning his Jews to force them to 
surrender their money, from one ot whom were 
taken seven teeth, one on each subsequent day, 
till on the eighth he ransomed the remainder of 
his teeth at the price demanded, ten thousand 
marks of silver; the latter extorting ten thou- 


68 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


sand marks from the Jews by making ten of 
their richest men bond for their payment. 

“The Christian Council held under the aus¬ 
pices of the Frank and Visigoth monarchs sowed 
the seed of intolerance against the Jews which 
soon grew into a rank crop. Greedy potentates, 
fanatics and rapacious masses, and demoralized 
priests were eagerly gathering it. They drove 
the Jews out of the pale of society, nay, treated 
them as outcasts of humanity deserving no 
human sympathy. The Christian law of the 
Middle Ages forbade the Jews to hold Christian 
servants. When they had to take an oath in 
court, they were compelled to stand on a hog- 
skin, repeating after the magistrate the most 
abominable execrations as a threat for perjury. 
To be outwardly known from Christians, as 
their complexions were often deceiving, they 
had to wear badges on their clothes, as their 
common “badge of sufferance” alone had not 
sufficed to distinguish them from others. 

“The Council at Narbonne, in 1227, decreed 
it should be of cloth in the form of a wheel, 
and the synod of Augsburg, in 1453, was seri¬ 
ously engaged in ordering separate badges for 
both sexes, a round rag of saffron color about 
the breast for the male, and two grayish ruffles 
for the female Jews. Those of England had to 


PATRIOTISM OF THE EUROPEAN JEW. 69 

wear a yellow badge, by virtue of an act of par¬ 
liament under Edward I. They were not long 
adorned with it, however, that generous king 
expelling them from his domain in the year 
1290. 

“Another mark of distinction was the Jew 
hat. The synod of Vienna, in 1267, and of Salz¬ 
burg, 1419, made it a penal law for the Jews to 
wear cornered hats, that they might be known 
distinctly from Christians. Susskind von Trim- 
berg, the homeless Jewish minstrel of the thir¬ 
teenth century, alludes in his poems, as De- 
litzsch supposes, to this monstrous outgrowth 
of Christian intolerance. 

“The German emperors and the kings and 
princes of Christian Europe assuming the 
ownership of their dependent Jews, they were 
from time to time presented by them as gifts, 
or mortgaged like inanimate property to other 
rulers or imperial cities. Every public calamity 
was laid to their charge, even the pestilence of 
1348-50 that ravaged fearfully throughout 
Europe. They were falsely accused of having 
poisoned the wells, and thereby caused that 
fell plague. Innumerable innocent Jews were 
then murdered or publicly burned at the stake; 
their princely protectors could not overawe the 
excited populace. In the age of reformation, 


70 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


when a broader intelligence began to spread 
among the masses, releasing their benumbed 
minds from the bane of religious ignorance, the 
wholesale massacres and pillages of the Jews 
ceased, to give way to their wholesale expul¬ 
sions from their oldest settlements.’* 

You can hardly expect a race to love coun¬ 
tries -where they were thus oppressed, robbed 
and murdered. In the Middle Ages the Jews 
had no refuge but the grave. And yet in those 
benighted ages the Jews were not wanting in 
patriotism in those countries where the govern¬ 
ments occasionally treated them as human 
beings. 

In the Spanish battles they fought as bravest 
knights. Forty thousand were arrayed against 
Alphonso VI., while he had as many Jews fight¬ 
ing on his side. They also fought valiantly for 
Alphonso VIII. Alphonso X., of Castile re¬ 
warded them en masse for their assistance 
against Seville, and gave them, when the ene¬ 
my’s land was divided, a village which was 
called Aldea de los Judeos . They fought hero¬ 
ically for Don Pedro, even after the Black 
Prince had forsaken him, defending Burgos to 
the last man, saying: “That God would never 
have it that they should deny obedience to their 
natural lord, Don Pedro, or to his rightful sue- 


PATRIOTISM OF THE EUROPEAN JEW. 71 

cessor”—a constancy that the prudent king, 
Don Enrico, very much esteemed, saying: 
“Such vassals as those were, by kings and great 
men, worthy of much account, seeing they held 
greater respect to the fidelity they owed to 
their king, although conquered and dead, than 
to the present fortune of the conqueror.** And 
awhile after, receiving very honorable condi¬ 
tions, they gave themselves over and Don Enrico 
recognized publicly their patriotism. 

Despite the Christian law forbidding the 
Jews to hold administrative or judicial offices, 
or to serve in the armies of Christian states 
even in urgent cases of defense, some princes 
and communities bestowed various posts of 
honor and trust on such of their Jews as they 
found trustworthy and able. In one of the 
darkest periods of Jewish history, in the year 
1259, the Provincial Council of Mayence issued 
an ordinance forbidding the Jews to continue in 
any secular dignity or public office. This 
shows that they were then actually occupying 
such positions. 

Duke Leopold of Austria, in the twelfth cen¬ 
tury, had a Jew, Solomon, appointed as super¬ 
intendent of his mint, an office of trust he held 
also under his son and successor, Frederick. 
Two Jewish brothers, Lubin and Nekelo, were 


72 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

functionaries of an Austrian duke about the 
year 1257. 

King Philip, the Handsome, of France, is said 
to have had 30,000 Jews in his army, in his ex¬ 
pedition against Count Guy of Flanders, 1297, 
who had renounced his allegiance to him. 

Notwithstanding the light of the Reformation, 
pillages and expulsions of the Jews continued to 
be the order of the day. But always and every¬ 
where, where the Jew found a friend in his 
country, the country found a friend in him. 
History does not tell the story of braver defen¬ 
ders than that of the Polish territory put up by 
Jews during the onslaught of the Cossacks into 
Poland during the Thirty Years War. 

THE GERMANS AS JEW BAITERS. 

The Germans are the greatest Jew-baiters in 
the world and look upon them as foreigners in 
Gemany, forgetting the fact that Caesar found 
the Jews residing on the Rhine enjoying the 
comforts of civilization when the ancestors of 
the German Gentiles were roaming wild in the 
forests, clad in boar skins, and chasing the au¬ 
rochs. The Jews are the most anciently cultured 
people in the world and when the ancestors of 
the European kings, queens and nobles were re¬ 
velling in coarseness or ignorantly bending their 


PATRIOTISM OF THE EUROPEAN JEW. 73 

backs to the commands of their superiors, the 
Jews were the torch-bearers of the world. Talk 
about pedigree! What are your Sons and 
Daughters of the Revolution or your Sons of the 
Crusaders compared to “the Levys, sons of the 
Levites, and the numerous Cahen, Cohen, Kohn, 
Kahn, Coehn, whose undisputed ancestors are 
the Cohanim , priests of the synagogue, who 
burned incense before Jehovah, preparatory to 
going in the shade of Babel, to discuss the 
origin of the world with the augurs of Chaldea 
and the magi of Iran. The sons of Israel were 
distinguished in the arts and sciences centuries 
before our Latin alphabet was fixed, long be¬ 
fore Cyril and Methodius had given alphabet to 
the Slavs, before Runic inscriptions were 
known to the Germanic races of the North.” 

Germany leads the scholarship of Europe, and 
the socially outcast Jew leads the scholarship 
of Germany. Moses Mendelssohn was the first 
German to originate a classical German style. 
The greatest scientific lights of which Germany 
boasts have been and are Jews. The greatest 
pupil Virchow produced was Cohnheim, a Jew, 
and when he died the anti-Semitic German 
government was forced to turn to another Jew 
as his successor. They offered the chair to 
Weigert, if he would be baptized, which he 


74 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


promptly declined. The greatest German actors 
are Jews. Germany’s greatest financiers, 
editors, poets and writers are Jews. 

EQUAL EIGHTS MAKES CITIZENS. 

Cremienx said: “If yon persecute, you make 
slaves; only by declaring equal rights for all 
you will make good citizens.” King Frederick 
William III. had no sooner given the Jews of 
Prussia equality with their Christian fellow- 
citizens, in 1812, than they responded readily to 
the summons of their king. 

According to the Prussian “Military Gazette” 
of 1848; there served in the campaigns of 1813-14, 
out of the then small Jewish population, 263 
volunteers and 80 regulars. In 1815, when the 
Prussian army had its fullest strength and the 
Jewish soldiers were more numerous, Harden- 
berg, the Prussian Chancellor, in a letter to 
Count von Grote, dated January 4th, gave the 
Jews the following testimony: 

“The history of our late war with France 
shows already that the Jews have, by their 
faithful allegiance to the state conferring equal 
rights on them proved worthy of it. The young 
men of the Jewish faith were the military com¬ 
rades of their Christian fellow-citizens, of whom 
we can present instances of true heroism and 


PATRIOTISM OF THE EUROPEAN JEW. 75 

glorious braving of the dangers of war. The 
rest of the Jewish inhabitants, especially the 
ladies, vied with the Christians in all kinds of 
patriotic sacrifices.” 

And what reward did the Jews receive for 
their sacrifices to the country? They were de¬ 
nied public employment. They could not get 
appointments as teachers, serve as jurors, or 
practice law, unless they submitted to baptism. 
They were not even allowed to be druggists. In 
the newly won French provinces, the same laws 
were made to apply. 

At Frankfort-on-the-Main, the Jews, in an 
address published in 1832, made the following 
complaint: 

“In the war called by them (the despots) the 
war of independence, we, too, have borne arms. 
Before that war, we of Frankfort, as every¬ 
where else in Germany where the French law 
was ruling, enjoyed equal rights with our Chris¬ 
tian fellow-citizens. When we returned from 
the battlefields, however, we met our fathers 
and brothers, whom we had left as free citizens, 
again as serfs, and such we have been until to¬ 
day. They have assumed over us the right of 
the past, viz., to diminish our population, as 
they do not let us contract more than fifteen 
marriages a year, though we number five thou- 


76 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

sand. They now advance against us that we 
came from the Orient and were strangers in the 
land, and that we considered even our Christian 
countrymen as such. However, this is our 
creed, this the doctrine inherited from our 
fathers: “When God created the world, he 
created man and woman, not master and slave, 
Jews and Christians, rich and poor.” Borne 
wrote in 1819: “After the overthrow of Napo¬ 
leon, the Jewish liberties were here and there 
decried as pernicious to the state. The Jews 
were also suspected of being friendly to the 
French dominion. Their peculiarities were 
such that their haters would not tolerate them 
as citizens. Only Germans, such as, according 
to Tacitus, came forth from the woods with red 
hair and light-blue eyes, were in their opinion 
entitled to civil rights, whereas the dark-com¬ 
plexioned Jews contrasted too disagreeably with 
them.” 

Their participation in the war for indepen¬ 
dence availed the Jews nothing. The “Military 
Gazette” has put their number enlisted from 
1814 to 1842 at 3,314. 

The Constituent Assembly at Berlin, in 1848, 
had declared all civil and political rights inde¬ 
pendent of any religious denomination, whereby 
the Jews also gained their liberties. But a re- 


PATRIOTISM OF THE EUROPEAN JEW. 77 

action set in and once more they had to fight 
for their liberties. It was not until 1869 that the 
law of the North German Confederacy relieved 
them from the mediaeval yoke they had so 
long borne. Political equality is sanctioned by 
law, but is still far from being an accomplished 
fact. Since that time the German Jews, in the 
Franco-Prussian war, have showed their love 
of the Fatherland in an unexampled degree. 
Phillipson, in his “Memoirs,” has collected a list 
of 2,531 Jewish soldiers in this war, and this list 
did not include the reports from the largest 
Jewish communities, as Berlin, Breslau, Posen 
and Frankfort. 

THE EMANCIPATION OF THE JEWS IN FRANCE. 

The year 1793 guaranteed to the Jews of 
France equality with French citizens, but, as the 
Dreyfus affair shows, the liberty of and justice 
to the Jew have not even yet passed from the 
statute into reality. Still, in spite of all, the Jews 
of France rallied with equal promptness under 
the banner of the empire and the republic when 
the safety of their country was imperilled. 
Even Napoleon, one of whose marshals, Mas- 
sena (whose real name was Manasseh) was a 
Jew, and by him surnamed, “the child of 
victory,” did not regard the Jews as citi- 


78 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

zens until 1806. He then declared: “The 
Jews are not in the same category with the 
Christians. We have to judge them by the po¬ 
litical, not the civil right, for they are no citi¬ 
zens.” He had, however, the earnest desire to 
make citizens of them. For this purpose he 
called together a number of Jewish deputies, in 
1806, charging them to state and explain truly 
the obstacles, if there were any, to Jewish citi¬ 
zenship, emanating from their religion. One of 
the questions put to that body was: “Do the 
Jews born in France, and considered by the 
law as her citizens, regard this country as 
theirs, even so far as to be obliged to defend 
her?” They solemnly answered: “People who 
choose for themselves a Fatherland, living 
therein since many centuries, and who, even 
under oppressive laws, felt such an attachment 
to it that they did rather forego the enjoyment 
of civil liberties than quit it, such cannot but 
think themselves Frenchmen in France and the 
obligation to defend her is to them an honora¬ 
ble and precious one. 

“Love of country is such a natural and pro¬ 
found sentiment among the Jews, and so corres¬ 
ponding to their religious belief, that a French 
Jew would think himself a stranger in English 
territory, even in his intercourse with co-reli- 


PATRIOTISM OF THE EUROPEAN JEW. 79 

gionists, the same being true of English Jews 
in France. 

“This sentiment prevails among them in such 
a measure that in the late wars one could fre¬ 
quently see French Jews* fight with fierce ani¬ 
mosity against the Jews m the hostile ranks. 
Many of them are now beset with scars, as the 
glorious marks of their patriotic devotion, and 
others have been praised and distinguished for 
their bravery on the field of honor.” In 1892 
there were about 300 Jewish officers serving in 
the French army. 

In the Hungarian Revolution there were no 
less than 35,000 Israelites. As by magic they 
were drawn toward Kossuth, who preached 
liberty and equality and at whose hands they 
expected redemption from civil and political 
degradation. 

The first soldiers that stormed Plevna were 
Roumanian Jews and the generals on both sides 
were Jews. In the last war between Turkey and 
Greece, Giuseppe Misan, a Jew, received the 
first wound. 

In Italy 1.4 per cent, of all Italian Jews are in 
the army against 1.1 of all Italians. And out 


*Of 77,000 Jews in all the French provinces, there were about 
that time 797 in active military service. (Gratz’s History, Vol. 
X., p. 304.) 



80 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


of every five Jews serving in the Italian army 
one is an officer against one in twelve in the 
Italian army as a whole. 

THE JEWS OF ENGLAND. 

On the 31st of August, 1290, Edward I., banish¬ 
ed all the Jews from England—16,511—pitiless¬ 
ly driven from a country inhabited by their an¬ 
cestors as far back as the eighth century. You 
could hardly expect them to love England—and 
yet no sooner had favorable legislation restored 
them to citizenship than they proved their love 
of country. The complete emancipation of the 
Jews in England was not brought about until 
1858, when Parliament resolved to admit Jews 
without the obligation to subscribe the oath “on 
the faith of a true Christian,” then their prac¬ 
tical persecution was ended. For as Macaulay 
said, “Persecution it is to inflict penalties on 
account of religious opinions.” Down to this 
time, many eminent lawyers and judges 
doubted whether a Jew could lawfully hold real 
estate in England.* Forty-one years have 
elapsed since the English Jews were fully eman ¬ 
cipated. Macaulay, champion of humanity, 


* Under the statutes or ordinances of the 54th and 55th, Henry- 
Ill. (a. d. 1269), which declared that no Jew should hold a free¬ 
hold. 



PATRIOTISM OF THE EUROPEAN JEW. 81 

who did so much to remove their disabilities, 
declared it was unfair “till we have tried the 
experiment, whether by making Englishmen of 
them, they will not become members of the 
community.” Not only has the Jewish race 
produced a Major-General, Albert Goldsmid, and 
two Lieutenant-Generals, Sir Jacob Adolphus, 
and Sir David Ximines, in the English army, and 
Sir Alexander Shomberg who distinguished him¬ 
self in the British navy, but every one familiar 
with English history knows that no people as a 
whole have shown a deeper concern for the 
honor and the truest interests of their country, 
and that no people have made greater sacrifices 
of comfort, of substance, and of life than the 
sons of Israel. 

JEWS IN THE BRITISH NAVY, ARMY AND AUXILIARY 
FORCES. 

Chaplain F. L. Cohen, in the Jewish Year Book 
for 1898 makes the following rough maximum 
estimate of the numbers of all ranks serving in 
the various branches of Her Majesty’s forces: 


Royal Navy and Marines. 40 Jews 

Regular Army.200 Jews 

Militia. 60 Jews 


Hon. Artillery Company, Yeomanry Cavalry 
and Volunteers.500 Jews 






82 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW 


Jewish officers serving 1898: 

ROYAL NAVY. 

Lieutenant C. G. R. Brandon.. .H. M. S. Cossack. 

Midshipman V. R. Brandon... .H. M. S. Imperieuse. 
Midshipman G. H. Freyberg.. .H. M. S. Undaunted. 

Midshipman H. D. Warburg_H. M. S. Calypso. 

Midshipman K. A. Yates.H. M.^S. Doris. 

Captain H. E. Blumberg.Royal Marine Light Infantry. 

REGULAR ARMY. 

Col. A. E. W. Goldsmid, p. s. c. .Asst. Adjt.-Gen. Thames Dist. 

Lieutenant H. J. J. Stern.13th Hussars. 

Lieutenant C. Behrens.Royal Horse Artillery. 

Lieut.-Col. E. N. Henriques_Royal Artillery. 

Major F. L. Nathan, p. a. c_Royal Artillery. 

Lieutenant H. S. Seligman.Royal Artillery. 

Lieut. -Col. J. J. Leverson, C. M. 

G., p. s. c.Royal Engineers. 

Major G F. Leverson, p. s. c.. Royal Engineers. 

Captain M. Nathan.Royal Engineers. 

Captain W. S. Nathan.Royal Engineers. 

Second Lieut. O. G. Brandon.. Royal Engineers. 

Second Lieut. T. T. Behrens... Royal Engineers. 

Captain W. A. W. Lawson_Scots Guards. 

Lieutenant H. A. Leverson.Royal Enniskillin Fusiliers. 

Captain F. D. Behrend.West Riding Regiment. 

Lieutenant F. M. Raphael.South Lancashire Regiment. 

Capt. E. S. D. Goldschmidt, p.s.c. Welsh Regiment. 

Major F. P. Lousada.York and Lancaster Regiment. 

Second Lieut. H.S.Oppenheimer. West India Regiment. 

Lieutenant F. G. E. Cannot_Army Service Corps. 

Lieutenant J. Salomone... .Royal Malta Artillery. 

Captain D. E. Mocatta.Indian Staff Corps. 

Surgeon-Lieut. A. Leventon_Indian Medical Service. 

Captain H. S. Samuel.Army Pay Department. 

Lieutenant J. Ezechiel.Indian Commissariat. 

Assistant Surveyor E. P. Dur- 
lacher, F. S. I., A. M. I. C. E. .Civil Staff Royal Engineers. 
Rev. F. L. Cohen.Officiating Chaplain. 


















83 


PATRIOTISM OF THE EUROPEAN JEW. 
MILITIA. 

Major H. B. Lewis-Barned (Re¬ 
serve of Officers).Kent Artillery. 

Lieutenant O. M. Harris.Suffolk Artillery. 

Captain G. E. Joseph.Lancashire Artillery. 

Captain E O. Oppenheim.3d Bn. Royal Irish Rifles. 

Captain E. C. Arnold (Reserve 

of Officers).7th Bn. Royal Fusiliers. 

Lieutenant A. F. Joseph.7th Bn. Rifle Brigade. 

YEOMANRY AND VOLUNTEERS. 

Major H. L. W. Lawson.Royal Bucks Hussars. 

Lieut. Hon. L. W. Rothschild.. .Royal Bucks Hussars. 

Lieut. L. L. F. Faudel-Phillips. .Herts Yeomanry Cavalry. 

Captain E. D. Stern.Berks Yeomanry Cavalry. 

Captain H. M. Jessel, M. P.Berks Yeomanry Cavalry. 

Captain C. A. Emanuel.1st Hampshire Vol. Artillery. 

Captain E. A. Behrend.1st Lancashire Vol. Artillery. 

Captain H. D. Behrend.1st Lancashire Vol. Artillery! 

Lieutenant B. Stern.1st Lancashire Vol. Artillery. 

Captain A. L. Peczenik.W. Somerset Yeomanry Cavalry. 

Captain S. G. Goldschmidt.7th Lancashire Vol. Artillery. 

Lieutenant O. B. Goldschmidt. .7th Lancashire Vol Artillery. 

Major B. S. Jacobs, V. D.2d East Yorkshire Vol. Artillery. 

Lieutenant P. Hildesheim.2d Middlesex Vol. Artillery. 

Major C. Q. Henriques.1st Middlesex Royal Engineers. 

Captain C. S. Montefiore.1st Middlesex Royal Engineers. 

Lieutenant W. Oppenheim.2d Lancashire Royal Engineers. 

Lieut.-Col. D. deL. Cohen, V. D.2d Tower Hamlets Royal Eng’rs. 
Second Lieut. J. J. deL. Cohen .2d Tower Hamlets Royal Eng’rs! 
Captain F. Murray-Campbell.. .4th V. B. Ryl. West Surrey Rgt. 

Lieutenant E. R. Harris.2d V. B. Northumberland Fus. 

Lt.-Col. M. A. Blumenthal,V.D. .2d Vol. Bn. Royal Fusiliers. 

Captain A. Levy Lever.2d Vol. Bn. Royal Fusiliers. 

Captain P. Carlebach.2d Vol. Bn. Royal Fusiliers. 

Lieutenant A. Pam.2d Vol. Bn. Royal Fusiliere. 

Lieutenant H. D’A. Blumberg. .3d Vol. Bn. Liverpool Regiment. 

Lieutenant E. K. Yates.4th V. B. Liverpool Regiment. 

Lieutenant E. J. Chapman.4th V. B. Suffolk Regiment. 

Second Lieut. L. M. Heyman . .1st V. B. West Yorkshire Regt. 
Second Lieut. H. J. Gotschalk.. 1st V. B. East Yorkshire Regt. 
Hon. Col. Lord Wandsworth . .4th Vol. Bn. East Surry Regt. 

























84 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

YEOMANRY AND VOLUNTEERS. —Continued. 

Major H. D. Sichel, Q.3d Vol. Bn. West Riding Regt. 

Major M. Emanuel, V. D.2d Vol. Bn. Hampshire Regt. 

Lieutenant H. H. Harris.17th Middlesex Vol. Rifles. 

Lieutenant W. Schoenfeld.17th Middlesex Vol. Rifles. 

Second Lieutenant S. N. Spira. .17th Middlesex Vol. Rifles. 

Lieutenant B. A. Elkins.1st Middlesex Vol. Rifles. 

Captain J. W. Cohen.13th Middlesex Vol. Rifles. 

Lieutenant M. H. Josephi.21st Middlesex Vol. Rifles. 

Captain E. Parker.22d Middlesex Vol. Rifles. 

Captain L. G. Marcus.2d London Vol. Rifles. 

Second Lieut. S. D. Myers.2d London Vol. Rifles. 

Second Lieut. E. A. Meyer.2d London Vol. Rifles. 

Major H. H. Montagu, V. D_3d London Vol. Rifles. 

Captain J. H. Montagu.3d London Vol. Rifles. 

Captain C. D. Enoch.3d London Vol. Rifles . 

CaptainS. L. Mandleberg.4th V ol. Bn. Manchester Regt. 

Lieutenant H. T. Dreschfeld .. .5th Vol. Bn. Manchester Regt. 

Lieut. L. B. L. Belinfante.16th Middlesex Vol, Rifles. 

Lieut.-Col. F. A. Lucas, V. D. 

(Reserve of Officers).20th Middlesex Vol. Rifles. 

Surgeon-Capt. H. Dutch, M. D..lst Tower Hamlets Vol. Rifles. 
Second Lieut. M. Coplans.1st Cadet Bn. East Kent Regt. 

COLONIAL MILITIA AND VOLUNTEERS. 

CANADA. 

Second Lieut. F. D. Benjamin.2d Queen’s Own Rifles Bn. 

Second Lieut. G. C. Hiam.3d Victoria Rifles, Bn. 

Lieutenant D. C. Meyers.10th Royal Grenadiers Bn. 

Second Lieut. G. F. Gabriel_36th Peel Bn. 

Captain S. N. Davis.37th Haldimand Rifles Bn. 

Lieutenant W. H. Vanvliet_51st Hemingford Rangers Bn. 

Captain D. A. Hart.60th Missisquoi Infantry Bn. 

Lieutenant I. W. Vidito.63d Halifax Rifles Bn. 

Captain M. Lee.77th Westmoreland Infantry Bn 

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 

Lieutenant F. H. Solomon.Capetown Highlanders. 

Second Lieut. W. S. Harris.Kimberley Rifles. 

JAMAICA. 

Reserve of Officers. 


Captain D. H. Mendez 




























PATRIOTISM OF THE EUROPEAN JEW. 85 
COLONIAL MILITIA AND VOLUNTEERS. -Continued. 

NATAL. 

Lieutenant H. M. Landsberg.. .Natal Carabiniers. 

NEW SOUTH WALES. 

Major M. M. Boam.Dept. Asst. Adjutant-General 

NEW SOUTH WALES. 

Paymaster C. Solomon.Staff. 

Second Lieut. M. J. Cohen.1st Infantry Bn. 

Second Lieut. L. Solomon.7th Infantry Bn. 

Captain L. Bernstein.Reserve of Officers. 

NEW ZEALAND. 

Major B. Harris, V. D.Unattached Active List. 

Captain B. Harris, V. D.South Franklin Mounted Rifles 

Captain C. Kohn.Auckland City Rifles. 

Captain S. S. Myers.Otago Infantry Bn. 

Lieutenant S. Wolf.South Canterbury Infantry Bn. 

Lieutenant H. Baron.B. Infantry Bn. 

QUEENSLAND. 

Captain J. E. Joseph.Mounted Infantry. 

SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 

Lieutenant-Colonel B. Solomon. Field Artillery. 

TRINIDAD. 

Lieutenant E. Lazare.Field Artillery. 

Second Lieut. L. A. Solomon... Light Infantry. 

VICTORIA. 

Major J. Monash.Garrison Artillery. 

Lieut. -Col. R. E. Joseph.Submarine Miners, Engineers. 

Lieutenant E. Gutheil.3d Bn. Militia Infantry. 

Captain J. Isacson.Victorian Rangers. 

Lieut.-Col. J. R. Y. Goldstein...Reserve of Officers. 

Captain M. A. Lazarus.Reserve of Officers. 

Captain H. A. Jacobs.Reserve of Officers. 

Lieutenant D. B. Lazarus.Reserve of Officers. 

Lieutenant M. Blashki.Reserve of Officers. 

WEST AUSTRALIA. 

Lieutenant S. Harris.Volunteer Infantry. 

Lieutenant R. Strelitz.Volunteer Infantry. 

























86 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

COLONIAL MILITIA AND VOLUNTEERS. — Continued. 

INDIA. 

Lieutenant A. R. Jacobson.Eastern Bengal States Ry. Vol. 

Rifles. 

Captain R. Benjamin.Moulmein Vol. Rifles. 

Major B. Samuel.Burma State Ry. Vol. Corps. 

Second Lieut. G. A. Berends.. .Bombay Vol. Rifles. 

Captain M. S. Landsberg.2d Bn. Calcutta Vol. Rifles. 

Previous to the recent reorganization of the 
Bombay army in class companies (each solely 
composed of members of one of the dominant 
religions or race) there were more than one 
hundred of the Beni-Israel serving among the 
rank and file of the native infantry. 

The following Jewish native officers are still 
serving: 

Jamadar Sooker Hyam.1st Bombay Infantry Grenadiers. 

Subadar Moses Sutkiel.3d Bombay Light Infantry. 

Subadar Joseph Aaron.3d Bombay Light Infantry. 

Subadar Reuben Nissin.8th Bombay Infantry. 

Subadar Major Samuel Moses... 12th Bombay Infantry. 

Subadar David Moses.12th Bombay Infantry. 

Subadar Samuel Moses.17th Bombay Infantry. 

Subadar Maj. Hyam Benjamin.22d Bombay Infantry. 

Subadar Moses Samuel.22d Bombay Infantry. 

Subadar-BahadoorEzek’lIsrael.28th Bombay Infantry Pioneers. 













The Jew as an American Patriot* 


The legend of the “Wandering Jew ” has a pathos beyond the 
usual interpretation. The story is told that the Jew, who refused 
to comfort Christ as he toiled under the weight of the cross, was 
condemned to tarry until he came, and so wanders around the 
world until the second coming. But it is the symbol also of the 
restlessness of the race, roaming through Christendom, homeless 
and rejected. It is the curse, says many a Christian heart, of 
the people that crucified the Redeemer. This is the common 
theory of the origin of the traditional antipathy to the Jews, 
and, undoubtedly, this is with many persons a vague justification 
of the feeling with which the Jew is regarded. But should it be 
nothing to such persons that when, as they believe, the Creator 
would incarnate Himself, He became a Jew ? Or, again, do they 
reflect that if it was in the eternal decrees that the sins of men 
were to be atoned and condoned by the innocent sacrifice, those 
who accomplished the sacrifice were but the agents of the Divine 
will ? Are all such ingenious speculations other than devices to 
explain and justify a mere prejudice of race, such as some 
African tribes cherish against people of white skins ? Those who 
find in such prejudice a profound significance will continue to 
plead the feeling as its own sufficient reason. But honorable 
men will be careful how they carelessly use the name of a race 
to which the religion, the literature, the art, the civilized prog- 
ress of humanity, are so greatly indebted, as a term of utter de¬ 
rision and scorn.— George William Curtis. 


THE JEW AS AN AMERICAN PATRIOT. 


89 


CHAPTER V. 

THE JEW AS AN AMERICAN PATRIOT. 

That the Jews furnished more than their pro¬ 
portion of supporters to the colonial cause we 
have unimpeachable evidence—they gave their 
lives for independence, and aided with their 
money to equip and maintain the armies of the 
Revolution. The Non-Importation Resolution in 
1765 the first organized movement in the agitation 
for separation from the mother country, a 
document still preserved in Carpenter’s Hall, 
Philadelphia, contains the following Jewish 
names: Benjamin Levy, Samson Levy, Joseph 
Jacobs, Hyman Levy, Jr., David Franks, Ma¬ 
thias Bush, Michael Gratz, Barnard Gratz, and 
Moses Mordecai. In 1769 a corps of volunteer 
infantry was raised in Charleston, South Caro¬ 
lina, composed chiefly of Hebrews, under com¬ 
mand of Captain Lushington, and which after¬ 
ward fought with great bravery under General 
Moultrie at Beaufort. 

The decision reached in New York, in 1770, to 
make more stringent the Non-Importation 
Agreement, which the colonists adopted to 
bring England to terms on the taxation ques- 


90 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


tion, had among its signers: Samuel Judah, 
Hayman Levy, Jacob Moses, Jacob Meyers, 
Jonas Phillips, and Isaac Seixas. At a time 
when the sinews of war were essential to suc¬ 
cess, Haym Salomon, of Philadelphia, responded 
to Robert Morris’ appeal with $300,000, and it is 
variously estimated, gave, all told, $600,000, 
not a penny of which has ever been repaid to 
the heirs of the philanthropist and patriot. But 
Haym Salomon was not the only Jew who sacri¬ 
ficed his fortune for independence, for we find 
among the signers of the Bills of Credit for the 
Continental Congress in 1776, were Benjamin 
Levy, of Philadelphia, and Benjamin Jacobs, of 
New York. Samuel Lyon, of New York, was 
among the signers of similar bills in 1779. Isaac 
Moses, of Philadelphia, contributed $15,000 to 
the Colonial Treasury, and Herman Levy, 
another Philadelphian, repeatedly advanced 
considerable sums for the support of the army 
in the field. Manuel Mordecai Noah, of South 
Carolina, not only served in the army as 
an officer on Washington’s staff, and likewise 
with General Marion, but gave $100,000 to fur¬ 
ther the cause in which he was enlisted. 

Cyrus Adler recently called attention to the fol¬ 
lowing incident. His information was based on 
an unpublished letter of Jared Sparks. “At 


THE JEW AS AN AMERICAN PATRIOT. 91 

the outbreak of the Revolutionary War a Mr. 
Gomez of New York proposed to a member of 
the Continental Congress that he form a com¬ 
pany of soldiers for service. The member of 
Congress remonstrated with Mr. Gomez on the 
score of age, he then being sixty-eight, to 
which Mr. Gomez replied that he “could stop a 
bullet as well as a younger man.” 

Colonel Isaac Franks became aid-de-camp to 
Washington, holding the rank of colonel on his 
staff, and served with distinction throughout 
the war. Major Benjamin Nones, a native of 
Bordeaux, France, who came to America in 
1777, served on the staffs of both Lafayette and 
Washington. He entered service under Pulas¬ 
ki, as a private, and as he writes, “fought in 
almost every action which took place in Caro¬ 
lina, and in the disastrous affair of Savannah 
shared the hardships of that sanguinary day.” 
He became major of a legion of four hundred 
men attached to Baron de Kalb’s command and 
composed in part of Hebrews. And when the 
brave De Kalb fell mortally wounded, Major 
Nones, Captain Jacob de la Motta and Captain 
Jacob de Leon carried their chief from the field. 

Colonel David S. Franks, whose pure patriot¬ 
ism and interest in the struggle for independence 
drew him from Montreal, became Arnold’s aid- 


92 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

de-camp. Franks gave testimony to Mrs. 
Arnold’s innocence of all complicity in her hus¬ 
band’s treason. Suspicions were aroused 
against Franks on account of Arnold’s treason, 
but after a searching inquiry into his conduct he 
was not only acquitted, but he was sent to 
Europe with important dispatches to Jay and 
Franklin, with instructions to await their orders. 
In a letter from Robert Morris to Franklin, dated 
Philadelphia, July 13, 1781, we read: “The 
bearer of the letter, Major Franks, formerly an 
aid-de-camp to General Arnold, and honorably 
acquitted of all connection with him after a full 
and impartial inquiry, will be able to give you 
our public news more particularly than I could 
relate them.” 

Philip Moses Russell, in the spring of 1775, en¬ 
listed as a surgeon’s mate, under command of 
General Lee. After the British occupation of 
Philadelphia, in September, 1777, he became 
surgeon’s mate to Surgeon Norman, of the 
Second Virginia Regiment. Russell went into 
winter quarters with the army at Valley Forge, 
1777-1778. Sickness forced him to resign in 
August, 1780. He received a letter of com¬ 
mendation from General Washington, “for his 
assiduous and faithful attentions to the sick 
and wounded.” 


THE JEW AS AN AMERICAN PATRIOT. 03 

Solomon Bush, Emanuel de la Motta, Benja¬ 
min Ezekiel, Jason Sampson, Colonel Jacob de 
la Motta, Ascher Levy, Nathaniel Levy, David 
Hays and his son Jacob, Reuben Etting, Jacob 
L Cohen, Major Lewis Bush, Aaron Benjamin, 
Joseph Bloomfield, Moses Bloomfield, Isaac 
Israel and Benjamin Moses, are a few of the 
other names of Jews who distinguished them¬ 
selves upon the battlefields of the Revolution. 

The commemoration of the first battlefield of 
the Revolutionary War was made possible 
through a Jew. Upon learning that Amos 
Lawrence of Boston had pledged himself to give 
$10,000 to complete the Bunker Hill monument, 
if any other person could be found to give a 
like amount, Judah Touro, of New Orleans, 
who came to the aid of Andrew Jackson during 
the memorable defense of that city, immediately 
sent a check for the amount. At a dinner given 
at Faneuil Hall, on June 13, 1843, to celebrate 
the completion of the monument, the two great 
benefactors of the association were remembered 
by the following toasts: 

Amos and Judah, venerated names, 

Patriarch and Prophet press their equal claims, 

Like generous coursers running “neck and neck ” 

Each aids the work by giving it a check. 

Christian and Jew, they carry out one plan, 

For though of different faiths, each is in heart a MAN 


94 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

THE WAR OF 1812. 

One of the most distinguished soldiers in the 
War of 1812 was Brigadier-General Joseph 
Bloomfield. Colonel Nathan Myers, Samuel 
Noah, Captain Meyer Moses, Judah Touro, 
Lieutenants Isaac Mertz, Benjamin Gratz, David 
Metzler and Adjutant Isaacs Meyers, are a few 
of the Jewish names on the roll of honor in our 
second war against England. 

At the time of the Mexican war, in 1846, the 
Jewish population was perhaps 15,000. 

General David de Leon twice took the place 
of commanding officers who had been killed or 
disabled by wounds, and twice received the 
thanks of the United States Congress for his 
gallantry and ability. Surgeon-General Moses 
Albert Levy, Colonel Leon Dyer, quarter-mas¬ 
ter-general under General Winfield Scott, Lieu¬ 
tenant Henry Seeligson, who was sent for by 
General Taylor and by him complimented for 
his conspicuous bravery at Monterey; Major 
Alfred Mordecai, Sergeant Jacob Davis, Ser¬ 
geant Samuel Henry, and Corporal Jacob Hirsch- 
born, are the names of a few of the sons of 
Israel who left valuable evidences of their pat¬ 
riotism in the Mexican War. 

From the earliest period of the republic to 


THE TEW AS AN AMERICAN PATRIOT. 95 

the present time, the Jew has been a conspicuous 
figure in our regular army and navy and in 
every branch of the service he has made an 
honorable record. 

Major Alfred Mordecai, is a recognized au¬ 
thority in the military world, in the field of 
scientific research, and in the practical applica¬ 
tion of mechanical deduction to war uses. His 
son and namesake has been an instructor at 
West Point. Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy 
at the time of his death, 1862, was the highest 
ranking officer (flag officer) in our navy, and 
upon his tombstone at Cypress Hills is recorded 
the fact that “he was the father of the law for 
the abolition of the barbarous practice of cor¬ 
poral punishment in the United States navy.” 

IN THE CIVIL WAR. 

In the Civil War the part the Jews took is so 
conspicuous that it is difficult to pick out the 
most prominent men in the conflict. Myer 
Asch, Nathan D. Menken and Louis H. Mayer, 
served on the staff of General Pope, Mayer 
serving also with Generals Rosecrans and 
Grant. Dr. Morris J. Asch served on the staff 
of General Sheridan. Major Lully, who during 
the Hungarian Revolution served on Kossuth’s 
staff, rendered valuable service under the direc- 


96 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


tion of the Secretary of War. Captain Dessauer, 
killed at Chancellorsville, and Newman Borchard 
served on the staff of General Howard. Max 
Cornheim and M. Szegley served on the staff of 
General Sigel. Jewish staff officers in the Con¬ 
federate army and navy are equally conspicuous, 
showing the spirit of Hebrew loyalty to convic¬ 
tion, for it should always be remembered that 
while the Jews of the North outnumbered the 
Jews of the South, they were for the most part 
immigrants of a recent date, while the Southern 
Jews were either natives of the soil or citizens 
of long influential standing, and therefore more 
imbued with the spirit and more interested in 
the result of the conflict. North Carolina sent 
six Cohen brothers, South Carolina five Moses 
brothers, Georgia, Raphael Moses and his three 
sons, while yet another Moses brother came 
from Alabama. Arkansas furnished three Cohen 
brothers, Virginia sent out three Levy brothers, 
Louisiana’s muster rolls also contain three 
brothers of the same name, while still another 
trio, of Goldsmiths, went forth from the South, 
two from Georgia and one from South Carolina. 
Mississippi provided five Jonas brothers, Ed¬ 
ward fighting in the Fiftieth Illinois against his 
four Confederate brothers, one of whom was 
Benjamin F. Jonas, former United States Sena¬ 
tor from Louisiana. 


THE JEW AS AN AMERICAN PATRIOT. 97 

On the Union side, New York alone furnished 
1,996 soldiers, among them the five Wenk 
brothers, Colonel Simon Levy and his three 
sons, Captain Benjamin C., Lieutenant Alfred, 
and Captain Ferdinand, former register of New 
York City. The Feder brothers also came from 
New York. From Ohio, which furnished the 
next largest quota, 1,004, in the war for the 
Union, we have the three Koch brothers, while 
Pennsylvania which sent 527 Hebrews, also sent 
three Jewish brothers, Emanuel, and so four¬ 
teen Jewish families sent 53 men to both armies, 
and according to the Hon. Simon Wolf, 7,884 
Jewish soldiers served in the Union and Confed¬ 
erate armies during the Civil War. 

Among the Hebrew officers in the Union army 
who achieved high distinction we may mention: 
Frederick Knefler, a native of Hungary, who at¬ 
tained the highest rank reached by any Hebrew 
during the Civil War. He enlisted as a private 
in the Seventy-ninth Indiana Volunteer In¬ 
fantry, and fought his way up to the colonelcy 
of his regiment, soon rising to the rank of briga¬ 
dier-general, and then brevet major-general for 
meritorious services at the battle of Chickamau- 
ga. He fought gallantly in all the principal 
battles of the army of the Cumberland, under 
Generals Rosecrans, Thomas and Grant, and 


98 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


took part in all the conflicts under Sherman’s 
march to the sea. 

Edward S. Solomon, colonel of the Eighty- 
second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, fought ai 
Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary 
Ridge and Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and 
throughout all the campaign in the Southwest 
and was brevetted brigadier-general. He was 
for four years governor of Washington Territory 
by the appointment of President Grant. 

Leopold Blumenberg, a Baltimore merchant, 
a native of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, decorated 
for meritorious service rendered the Prussian 
army in the Prussian-Danish war of 1848, when 
Fort Sumter was fired upon, abandoned his 
business, and helped to organize the Fifth Regi¬ 
ment, Maryland Infantry, of which he was ap¬ 
pointed major. His regiment was engaged in 
the battle of Antietam under him as colonel. 
He was brevetted brigadier-general, and died 
in 1876, the result of the wound he received at 
Antietam. 

Philip J. Joachimsen organized the Fifty- 
ninth New York Volunteer regiment, and went 
to the front with it as colonel. A fall from his 
horse disqualified him for military duty. He 
rendered great services while stationed at For¬ 
tress Monroe as United States paymaster, and 


THE JEW AS AN AMERICAN PATRIOT. 99 

for his assistance to General B. F. Butler at 
New Orleans, Governor Fenton of New York, in 
acknowledgment of his eminent services, ap¬ 
pointed him brevet brigadier-general. 

Colonel Marcus M. Spiegel, of the One Hun¬ 
dred and Twentieth Ohio Infantry, who died 
before he could receive the promotion to a briga¬ 
dier-generalship for which his superior officers 
recommended him for bravery at Vicksburg 
and Snaggy Point; Max Einstein, colonel of the 
Twenty-seventh Regiment of Pennsylvania Vol¬ 
unteers; Colonel Max Freedman, of the Fifth 
Pennsylvania Cavalry; Lieutenant-Colonel Israel 
Moses, of Sickles’ Brigade; Isaac Moses, adju¬ 
tant-general of the Third Army Corps of the 
Army of the Potomac; Colonel H. A. Seligson, 
of Vermont, Lieutenant-Colonel Leopold C. 
Newman, to whose dying bed President Lincoln 
brought his commission promoting him to the 
rank of brigadier-general; Colonel Ansel Ham- 
berg, of the Twelfth Pennsylvania Infantry; 
Abraham Hart, brigade-adjutant-general of 
the Seventy-third Pennsylvania Infantry; Elias 
Leon Hyneman of the Fifth Pennsylvania Cav¬ 
alry; Captain Joseph Greenhut, Lieutenant Max 
Sachs, who was killed at Bowling Green; Col¬ 
onel H. Newbold, of the Fourteenth Iowa, 
killed at Red River; Adolph A. Meyer, inspec- 
LOfC. 


100 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

tor-general, by special appointment of President 
Lincoln, transferred from New Mexico to Penn¬ 
sylvania; David Manheim, Colonel First Nevada 
Cavalry; Herman Bendell, surgeon Eighty-sixth 
New York Infantry, brevetted lieutenant-colonel 
for meritorious and honorable conduct; Adju¬ 
tant Abraham Cohn,of New Hampshire; Captain 
A. Goldman, of Maine; Sergeant Leopold Kar- 
pelles, of Massachusetts. Sergeant-Major Al¬ 
exander M. Appel, of Iowa; David A. Brau- 
ski, Henry Heller, Abraham Gum wait, and 
Isaac Gans, of Ohio, are a few names of Jews 
who distinguished themselves upon the battle¬ 
fields of the war for the Union. 

JEWS AND AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENT. 

In the political movements for the abolition 
of slavery the Jews took a leading part in creat¬ 
ing public opinion. As early as 1853, a fugitive 
negro arrested by a United States marshal, 
was liberated by a crowd of citizens, led by 
Michael Greenbaum, and on the evening of the 
same day a big meeting was held to ratify that 
act. The first official call to organize the aboli¬ 
tion movement was signed by George Schneider, 
Adolpe Loeb, Julius Bosenthal, Leopold Mayer, 
and a cigar dealer named Hanson, four Jews 


THE JEW AS AN AMERICAN PATRIOT, 101 

among the five leaders of the German popu¬ 
lation of Chicago in a great political move¬ 
ment. 

In the columns of the New York Tribune , 
Michael Heilprin, who had previous to his com¬ 
ing to America shown his love of liberty as a 
member of Kossuth’s civil staff during the Hun¬ 
garian Revolution, vigorously exonerated the 
Old Testament from favoring slavery. Dr. Ed¬ 
ward Moritz, of the Philadelphia Democrat; 
Rabbi Samuel M. Isaacs, as preacher and editor 
of the Jewish Messenger; Rabbi Liebman Adler, 
in Detroit; Dr. Horwitz, in Cleveland; and Dr. 
Felsenthal in Chicago, were sowing the seeds of 
liberty. 

Rabbi Sobato Morais, on account of his anti¬ 
slavery sentiments, was elected an honorary 
member of the Union League Club of Philadel¬ 
phia, an honor he shared with Rev. Dr. David 
Einhorn, who in 1856, came to pro-slavery 
Baltimore from Austria, where his temple 
had been closed against him by the imperial 
government, on account of his alleged revolu¬ 
tionary utterances, from the sacred desk of 
the Har Sinai Congregation, with fiery elo¬ 
quence, and in his Sinai , a German monthly, in 
unanswerable arguments, he poured forth shot 
and shell from the Old Testament armory into 


102 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

the ranks of the advocates of slavery and the 
time-serving attitude of the churches, until 
driven out of the city and his return prohibited 
under martial law. 

Dr. Einhorn, in Baltimore and later in Phil¬ 
adelphia, did as much as any man of his day to 
create the public sentiment which shivered that 
colossal iniquity. In New York, Judge Philip 
J. Joachimsen, as Assistant United States Dis¬ 
trict Attorney, vigorously prosecuted certain 
slave dealers. Moritz Pinner, on January 1, 
1859, began the issue of an abolitionist paper, 
the Kansas Post , at Kansas City. As delegate 
to the National Bepublican Convention, he with 
other Jews, like Judge Dittenhoefer of New 
York, worked earnestly among the Germans for 
the nomination of Abraham Lincoln. 

Bear-Admiral Preble, in his “History of the 
Flag of the United States of America,’’ tells the 
following incident showing Jewish feeling on 
the slavery question and their loyalty to the 
Union: 

“On the 11th day of February, 1861, Mr. Lin¬ 
coln, the President-elect of the United States, 
left his home in Springfield, Illinois, for the seat 
of government, accompanied by a few friends. 
His fellow-citizens and neighbors gathered at 
the railway station to wish him Godspeed. He 


THE JEW AS AN AMERICAN PATRIOT. 103 

was affected by this kind attention, and ad¬ 
dressed the assembly of his friends in a few 
words, requesting they would all pray that he 
might receive the divine assistance in the re¬ 
sponsibilities he was about to encounter, with¬ 
out which he who could not succeed, but with 
which success was certain. Before leaving 
Springfield he received from Abraham Kohn, 
City Clerk of Chicago, a fine picture of the flag 
of the Union, bearing an inscription in Hebrew 
on its folds. The verses being the fourth to 
the ninth of the first chapter of Joshua, in 
which Joshua was commanded to reign over a 
whole land, the first verse being: “Have I not 
commanded thee? Be strong and of good cour¬ 
age; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; 
for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever 
thou goest.” 

Referring to this incident some time ago, 
President William McKinley said: “Could any¬ 
thing have given Mr. Lincoln more cheer, or 
been better calculated to sustain his courage or 
to strengthen his faith in the mighty work be¬ 
fore him? Thus commanded, thus assured, Mr. 
Lincoln journeyed to the capital, where he took 
the oath of office and registered in heaven an 
oath to save the Union. And the Lord, our 
God, was with him, until every obligation of 


104 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


oath and duty was sacredly kept and honored. 
Not any man was able to stand before him. 
Liberty was the more firmly enthroned, the 
Union was saved, and the flag which he carried 
floated in triumph and glory from every flag¬ 
staff of the Republic.” 

THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR. 

The records of the War Department show 
that there were over 4,000 Hebrews in the 
American armies during the war with Spain, 
more than 4,000 furloughs were granted by the 
War Department to such soldiers as desired to 
celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur at 
home. Captain A. W. Murray, who has been at 
the department looking up statistics on this 
subject, stated that a careful perusal of the 
muster rolls of the army is sufficient refutation 
of the assertion made by certain uninformed 
and prejudiced persons that the Jewish people 
were not patriotic Americans. 

“When war was declared,” he said, “the Jew¬ 
ish press throughout the country reminded their 
people of the wanton persecution of the Hebrews 
by Spain, covering many years. They had been 
driven from their country and deprived of their 
property by the cruel, unjust Spaniards. The 


THE JEW AS AN AMERICAN PATRIOT. 105 

young Hebrew men did not require urging. 
Their love for America alone was enough and 
they flocked to the standard of liberty, the 
Stars and Stripes.” 

It is a matter of history that they fought as 
bravely before Manila and Santiago de Cuba as 
they did at Leipsic and Waterloo; under Kos¬ 
suth and Garibaldi; before Sebastopol, Sadowa 
and Sedan. The first man to fall in the attack 
on Manila was Sergeant Maurice Justh, of the 
First California Volunteers (which regiment 
numbered 100 Jews). Theodore Roosevelt, the 
intrepid leader of the Rough Riders, declared 
that in that brave regiment, which has chal¬ 
lenged the admiration of the world, the most 
astonishing courage was displayed by the seven 
Jewish Rough Riders, one of whom became a 
lieutenant. The Astor Battery numbered ten 
Jews among their ninety-nine men. Fifteen Jews 
went down to death in”The Maine,’’destroyed in 
the l arbor of Havana, the most infamous m all 
the world, and there was not an engagement 
during the war with Spain in which Hebrews 
did not take part, and many Jewish names ap¬ 
pear on the list of killed and wounded, and the 
much-maligned Russian Jews furnished more 
than double their share of volunteers. Lieuten¬ 
ant-Commander Marix, of the navy, a Hebrew, 


106 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW 


was Judge Advocate of the Maine Disaster 
Board of Inquiry, and many cases could be cited 
where Americans of Hebrew extraction per¬ 
formed gallant and meritorious service under 
the flag. 


The Jew in the Arts. 


One beautiful June evening in Paris I strolled with a friend 
into a cafe on the Boulevard. We had been to hear “Robert le 
Diable ” at the French Opera, and gayly humming and gossiping 
we sat upon the broad walk that was still thronged on the still 
summer night. Presently a dark-haired man came quietly 
along and seated himself at a table near by. He was alone, and 
seemed not to care for recognition. He was simply dressed and 
was entirely unnoticeable except for the strong Jewish lines in 
his intellectual face. My companion whispered, “That is the 
man to whom we owe the delight of this evening; that is Meyer¬ 
beer. ” After a little while he added with feeling, * ‘ How much we 
owe to the Jews and how mean Christendom is.” 

It was remarkable how much of the conspicuous work and in 
fluence of that evening was due to the genius of a people whose 
name is so constantly used as a word of reproach. A few months 
before, Felix Mendelssohn had been buried in Leipsic, and in Ber¬ 
lin I had heard the memorial concert of his music at the Sing- 
Akademie. Rossini was still living, and Verdi was writing 
operas, but Mendelsshon and Meyerbeer were the recognized 
masters of music. The evening before, I had seen the Jewish 
Rachel in “Phedre”—the one woman who contests the laurel 
with Mrs. Siddons, and who was then the greatest living actress. 
Beyond the channel, Disraeli, the child of Spanish Jews, was just 
about to kiss hands as chancellor of the exchequer, and to be¬ 
come the political leader of the British Tories. While in Paris 
and London and Frankfurt and Vienna the great masters of the 
mainsprings of industrial activity, the capitalists, who held peace 
and war in their hands, and by whose favor kings rule, were 
Jews. The philosophy, the art, the industry, the politics of 
Christendom were full of the Jewish genius, the gayety of 
nations, the delight of scholars, the scepters of princes, the 
movements of civilization, hung in great degree upon it. It is as 
true to-day as in that long summer night, and the words of my 
friend are still as shamefully true: “How mean Christendom 
is!”— George William Curtis. 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 


109 


CHAPTER VI. 

THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 

AS POETS. 

The long line of Spanish poets culminates in 
Jehuda Halevi, who was born in 1085, in Castile 
in Spain, where the Jews formed the center of 
the most cultivated society. Skilled as a 
physician and profound as a philosopher, his 
varied genius manifested itself most conspicu¬ 
ously in verse. His greatest poem deals with 
his own belief and the sorrows of his people. 

Sclileiden says: “In the whole compass of 
religious poetry, Milton’s and Klopstock’s not 
excepted, nothing can be found to surpass the 
‘Elegy of Zion.’ This soul-stirring Lay of 
Zion,’ better than a critical dissertation will 
give the reader a clear insight into the character 
and spirit of Jewish poetry during the Middle 
Ages: 

O Zion! of thine exiles’ peace take thought, 

The remnant of thy flock, who thine have sought! 

From west, from east, from north and south resounds, 

Afar and now anear, from all thy bounds, 

And no surcease, 

“With thee be peace!" 


110 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


In longing j fetters chained I greet thee, too, 

My tears fast welling forth like Hermon’s dew— 

O bliss could they but drop on holy hills! 

A croaking bird I turn, when through me thrills 
Thy desolate state; but when I dream anon. 

The Lord brings back thy ev’ry captive son— 

A harp straightway 
To sing thy lay. 

In heart I dwell where once thy purest son 
At Bethel and Peniel, triumphs won; 

God’s awesome presence there was close to thee 
Whose doors thy Maker, by divine decree. 

Opposed as mates 
To heaven’s gates. 

Nor sun, nor moon, nor stars had need to be 
God’s countenance alone illumined thee 
On whose elect he poured his spirit out. 

In thee would I my soul pour forth devout! 

Thou wert the kingdom’s seat, of God the throne. 
And now there dwells a slave race, not thine own, 

In royal state, 

Where reigned thy great. 

O would that I could roam o’er ev’ry place 
Where God to missioned prophets showed His grace! 
An d who will give me wings? An off’ring meet, 

I’d haste to lay upon thy shattered seat, 

Thy counterpart— 

My bruised heart. 

Upon thy precious ground I’d fall prostrate, 

Thy stones caress, the dust within thy gate, 

And happiness it were in awe to stand 
At Hebron’s graves, the treasures of thy land, 

And greet thy woods, thy vine-clad slopes, thy vales. 
Greet Abarim and Hor, whose light ne’er pales, 

A radiant crown, 

Thy priests’ renown. 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 


Ill 


Thy air is balm for souls; like myrrh thy sand; 

With honey run the rivers of thy land, 

Though bare my feet, my heart’s delight I’d count 
To thread my way all o’er thy desert mount, 

Where once rose tall 
Thy holy hall, 

Where stood thy treasure-ark, in recess dim, 
Close-curtained, guarded o’er by cherubim. 

My Naz’rite’s crown would I pluck off, and cast 
It gladly forth. With curses would I blast 
The impious time thy people, diadem-crowned, 

Thy Nazarites, did pass, by en’mies bound 
With hatred’s hands, 

In unclean lands. 

By dogs thy lusty lions are brutal torn 

And dragged; thy strong, young eaglets, heav’nward borne, 
By foul mouthed ravens snatched, and all undone. 

Can food still tempt my taste ? Can light of sun 
Seem fair to shine 
To eyes like mine ? 

Soft, soft! Leave off a while, O cup of pain! 

My loins are weighted down, my heart and brain. 

With bitterness from thee. Whene’er I think 
Of Oholah, proud northern queen, I drink 
Thy wrath, and when my Oholivah forlorn 
Comes back to mind—’tis then I quail thy scorn, 

Then draught of pain, 

Thy lees I drain. 

O Zion! Crown of grace! Thy comeliness 
Hath ever favor won and fond caress. 

Thy faithful lovers’ lives are bound in thine; 

They joy in thy security, but pine 
And weep in gloom 
O’er thy sad doom. 

From out the prisoner’s cell they sigh for thee, 

And each in prayer, wherever he may be. 

Towards thy demolished portals turns. Exiled, 

Dispersed from mount to hill, thy flock defiled 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


112 


Hath not forgot thy sheltering fold. They grasp 
Thy garment’s hem, and trustful, eager, clasp, 

With outstretched arms, 

Thy branching palms. 

Shinar, Pathros—can they in majesty 
With thee compare ? Or their idolatry 
With thy Urim and thy Thummim august ? 

Who can surpass thy priests, thy saintly just, 

Thy prophets bold, 

And bards of old ? 

The heathen kingdoms change and wholly cease— 

Thy might alone stands firm without decrease, 

Thy Nazarites from age to age abide, 

Thy God in thee desireth to reside. 

Then happy he who maketh choice of thee 
To dwell within thy courts, and waits to see, 

And toils to make, 

Thy light awake. 

On him shall as the morning break thy light, 

The bliss of thy elect shall glad his sight, 

In thy felicities shall he rejoice, 

In triumph sweet exult, with jubilant voice, 

O’er thee, adored, 

To youth restored. 

Heine, who was capable of appreciating the 
beauty of Halevi’s Hebrew verses, gives this 
account of the noble singer: 

Ah! he was the greatest poet, 

Torch and starlight to his age, 

Beacon-light to his people; 

Such a mighty and a wondrous 

Pillar of poetic fire, 

Led the caravan of sorrow 

Of his people Israel 

Through the desert of their exile. 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 


113 


Pure and truthful, fair and blameless. 
Was his song, and thus his soul was. 
When the Lord that soul created, 

With great joy His work beheld He, 

And He kissed that soul of beauty. 

Of His kiss the fair faint echo 
Thrills through each song of Halevi, 

By the Lord’s grace sanctified. 

As in life, so in our singi ag, 

Highest gift of all is grace— 

Holding this, he never falters, 

Not in prose nor yet in verses, 

Such we call a genius, 

By the grace of God a poet: 
Irresponsible his kingdom, 

O’er the thought-world ruling, reigning. 

Gives account but to the Godhead, 

Not the people, for in art 
As in life the people can but 
Slay, yet never can they judge us. 

And the hero whom we sing of. 

He Yehuda Ben Halevi, 

Had of all one lady chosen— 

Yet she was of different moulding. 

She was not a favored Laura, 

Whose fair eyes, mere mortal starlight, 
In the duomo on Good Friday 
Spread the famous conflagration. 

Nor was she a chatelaine 
Who presided at the tourneys 
In her flower of youth and beauty, 

And distributed the laurel. 

No fair barrister of kiss-right 
Was she, not a wise professor 
Who did lecture in the college 
Of a court of love right wisely— 


114 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


She, the fair love of the rabbi 
Was a poor and saddened sweetheart, 

Was destruction’s woeful image 
And was named Jerusalem. 

By Halevi’s side stands Solomon Ibn Gabirol 
(1021-70), that 

Human nightingale that warbled 
Forth her songs of tender love, 

In the darkness of the sombre, 

Gothic mediaeval night. 

She, that nightingale, sang only, 

Sobbing forth her adoration 
To her Lord, her God in heaven, 

Whom her songs of praise extols.— Heine. 

Passing by the long line of Italian poets like 
Bachel Morpurgo (1790-1871), Sarah Copia Sul- 
lam (1600-41), Deborah Ascarelli, S. Kamanelli, 
and the late David Levi, the poet and philoso¬ 
pher of Turin, let us turn to Austria which 
boasts of four Jewish poets—L. A. Frankl 
(1810-94), (Ritter von Hochwarth ), Karl Beck 
(1817-79), L. Wihl (b. 1817), and L. Kalisch 
(1814-82); France, Eugene Manuel (b. 1823); Den¬ 
mark, Henrik Hertz (1798-1870); Hungary, 
Ignaz Acsady. 

The first Jewish poet to write in German was 
E. M. Kuh (1828-76), whose tragic fate has been 
told by Auerbach in his “Dichter und Kauf- 
mann.” Solomon Ludwig Steinheim (1790- 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. Hfi 

1866), Sel Heller (“Ahasver”), (1881-92), Th. 
Creizenach (1817-77), M. Hartmann (1821-72), 
S. H. Mosenthal (1821-77), Henriette Otten- 
heimer (b. 1807), M. Sachs (1808-64), and Moritz 
Rapoport, sing the songs of Zion in German. 
Among the German Jewish poets Heine easily 
ranks first. 

Heinrich Heine, born in Dtisseldorf, Decem¬ 
ber 12th (or 18th), 1799, he just missed, as he 
said, being one of the first men of the century. 
His father was a wealthy merchant, and his 
mother a Van Geldern, daughter of a famous 
physician and statesman. As at that time in 
Germany all the learned professions were closed 
to Jews, and desiring to follow the law, he sub¬ 
mitted in his twenty-sixth year to baptism, the 
baptismal registry reading “Johann Christian 
Heine,” names he never made use of as a writer 
—doubtless to show his contempt for his en¬ 
forced apostasy. His sympathy with the 
French Revolutionists, who made it possible 
for the Jews in Germany to find activities for the 
exercise of their talents, and his satiric pamph¬ 
let against the nobility in 1830, made him feel 
that he would be safer out of Germany, and in 
1831 he moved to Paris, and though for twenty- 
five years thoroughly in sympathy with every¬ 
thing French, he never forgot that he was a 


116 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

German, and never lost his love for the Father- 
land, as these well known lines testify: 

I am a German poet 
Of goodly German fame-. 

Where their best names are spoken, 

Mine own they are sure to name. 

Goethe and Heine are acknowledged the chief 
exponents of German lyric poetry. Matthew 
Arnold, the English critic, goes so far as to term 
Heine the “most important German succes¬ 
sor and continuator of Goethe in Goethe’s most 
important line of activity.’’ He was a soldier in 
the intellectual war of liberation which has 
freed European thought from its mediaeval 
shackles. 


SELECTIONS FROM HEINE. 

THE LORELEI. 

I know not whence it rises, 

This thought so full of woe. 

But a tale of times departed 
Haunts me, and will not go. 

The air is cool, and it darkens, 

And calmly flows the Rhine, 

The mountain peaks are sparkling 
In the sunny evening-shine. 

And yonder sits a maiden, 

The fairest of the fair 

With gold is her garments glitteiing, 
As she combs her golden hair; 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 117 

With a golden comb she combs it; 

And a wild song singeth she, 

That melts the heart with a wondrous 
And powerful melody. 

The boatman feels his bosom 
With a nameless longing move; 

He sees not the gulf before him, 

His gaze is fixed above. 

Till over the boat and boatman. 

The Rhine’s deep waters run. 

And this, with her magic singing, 

The Lorelei has done! 

—From the Edinburgh Review. 


GOLD. 

Say, my golden ducats, say. 

Whither are ye fled away ? 

Are ye with the golden fishes 
In the little rushing river, 

Gayly darting hither, thither ? 

Are ye with the golden blossoms 
On the meadows green and fair. 

Sparkling in the dewy air? 

Are ye with the golden songsters 
Sweeping through the azure sky, 

Flashing splendor to the eye ? 

Are ye with the golden stars 
Clusters of refulgent light, 

Smiling through the summer night ? 
Well-a-day! my golden ducats 
Do not in the river lie, 

Do not sparkle in the dew, 

Do not flash across the blue. 

Do not twinkle in the sky. 

But my creditors can tell 
Where my golden ducats dwell. 

—Translation of Ernest Beard. 



118 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW 
GOTTINGEN. 

Black dress coats and silken stockings, 

Snowy ruffles frilled with art, 

Gentle speeches and embraces 
Oh, if they but held a heart! 

Held a heart within their bosom, 

Warmed by love which truly glows; 

Ah! I’m wearied with their chanting 
Of imagined lover’s woes! 

I will climb upon the mountains, 

Where the quiet cabin stands, 

Where the wind blows freely o’er us. 

Where the heart at ease expands. 

I will climb upon the mountains, 

Where the dark-green fir trees grow; 

Brooks are rustling, birds are singing. 

And the wild clouds headlong go. 

Then farewell, ye polished ladies, 

Polished men and polished hall! 

I will climb upon the mountain, 

Smiling down upon you all. 

—From “ The Hartz Journey.” Translated by Charles G. Leland. 


PEACE. 

High in the heavens there stood the sun 
Cradled in snowy clouds, 

The sea was still, 

And musing I lay at the helm of the ship, 
Dreamily musing—and half in waking 
And half in slumber, I gazed upon Christ, 
The Saviour of man. 

In streaming and snowy garment 
He wander’d giant-great, 

Over land and sea; 

His head reach’d high to the heavens, 

His hands he stretch’d out in blessing 
Over land and sea; 



THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 


119 


And as a heart in his bosom 
Bore he the sun, 

The sun all ruddy and flaming, 

And the ruddy and flaming sunny-heart 
Shed its beams of mercy, 

And its beauteous, bliss-giving light. 

Lighting and warming 
Over land and sea. 

Sounds of bells were solemnly drawing 
Here and there, like swans were drawing 
By rosy hands the gliding ship, 

And drew it sportively toward the green shore, 
Where men were dwelling, in high and turreted 
O’erhanging town. 

O blessing of peace! How still the town! 

Hushed was the hollow sound 
Of busy and sweltering trade, 

And through the clean and echoing streets 
Were passing men in white attire, 

Palm-branches bearing, 

And when two chanced to meet, 

They view’d each other with inward intelligence. 
And trembling, in love and sweet denial, 

Kiss’d on the forehead each other, 

And gazed up on high 
At the Saviour’s sunny-heart 
Which, glad and atoningly 
Beam’d down its ruddy blood, 

And three times blest, thus spake they: 

“Praised be Jesus Christ!” 

—Translation of E. A. Bowring. 


SUNSET. 

The glowing ruddy sun descends 
Down to the far up-shuddering 
Silvery-gray world-ocean • 

Airy images, rosily breath’d upon, 

After him roll, and over against him, 

Out of the autumnal glimmering veil of clouds. 



120 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

With face all mournful and pale as death, 
Bursteth forth the moon, 

And behind her, like sparks of light, 

Misty— broad—glimmer the stars. 

Once in the heavens there glitter’d, 

Join’d in fond union, 

Luna the goddess and Sol the god, 

And around them the stars all cluster’d, 

Their little, innocent children. 

But evil tongues then whisper’d disunion, 

And they parted in anger. 

That glorious, radiant pair. 

Now in the daytime, in splendor all lonely, 
Wanders the Sun-god in realms on high— 

On account of his majesty 
Greatly sung-to and worshipp’d 
By haughty, bliss-harden’d mortals. 

But in the night-time, 

In heaven wanders Luna, 

Unhappy mother, 

With all her orphan’d starry children, 

And she gleams in silent sorrow, 

And loving maidens and gentle poets 
Devote to her tears and songs. 

The gentle Luna! womanly minded, 

Still doth she love her beautiful spouse. 
Toward the evening, trembling and pale, 
Peeps she forth from the light clouds arornd. 
And looks at the parting one mournfully, 
And fain would cry in her anguish: “ Cone! 
Come! the children all long for thee—” 

But the disdainful Sun-god, 

At the sight of his spouse ’gins glowing 
With still deeper purple, 

In anger and grief, 

And inflexibly hastens he 

Down to his flood-chill’d widow’d bed. 

Evil and backbiting tongues 
Thus brought grief and destruction 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 


121 


E'en ’mongst the godheads immortal. 

And the poor godheads, yonder in heaven, 

Wander in misery, 

Comfortless over their endless tracks, 

And death cannot reach them, 

And with them tney trail 
Their bright desolation. 

But I, the mere man, 

The lowly-planted, the blest-with-death-one, 

I sorrow no longer. 

—Translation of E. A. Bowring. 


IT GOES OUT. 

The curtain falls, as ends the play, 

And all the audience go away; 

And did the price give satisfaction ? 

Methinks they found it of attraction. 

A much respected public then 
Its poet thankfully commended; 

But now the house is hushed again, 

And lights and merriment are ended. 

But hark to that dull heavy clang 
Heard by the empty stage’s middle! 

It was perhaps the bursting twang 
Of the worn string of some old fiddle. 

Witn rustling noise across the pit 
Some nasty rats like shadows flit, 

And rancid oil all places smell of, 

And the last lamp, with groans and sighs 
Despairing, then goes out and dies.— 

My soul was this poor light I tell of. 

—Translation of E. A. Bowring. 


AN OLD SONG, 

Thou art dead and thou knowest it not, 

The light of thine eye is quench d and forgot, 
Thy rosy mouth is pallid forever, 

And thou art dead, and wilt live again never. 




122 


• JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


’Twas in a dreary midsummer night, 

I bore thee myself to the grave outright; 

The nightingales and their soft lamentations. 

And after us followed the bright constellations. 

As through the forest the train moved along, 

They made it resound with the litany’s song, 

The firs in their mantles of mourning veiled closely. 

The prayers for the dead repeated morosely. 

And as o’er the willowy lake we flew 
The elfins were dancing full in our view. 

They suddenly stopped in wondering fashion, 

And seemed to regard us with looks of compassion. 

And when we had reached the grave, full soon 
From out of the heavens descended the moon, 

And preached a sermon, midst tears and condoling 
While in the distance the bells were tolling. 

—Translation of E. A. Bowring. 


The academy of poetry, originating in Am¬ 
sterdam, in 1676, was directed by Manuel de 
Belmonte, a Jew, whose pride of race was grati¬ 
fied by Isabella Correa, one of the most promi¬ 
nent members of the association, whose fine 
translation from Italian into Spanish of Guarini’s 
“Pastor Fido,” achieved for her a European 
reputation. 

Among the poets of England may be named 
Manuela Nunez d’Almeida, born 1720; Ben- 
venida Cohen Belmonte, born 1720; Isaac Gom- 
pertz (1774-1856); Emma Henry (1788-70); 
Moses Mendez (died 1758); and Sara de Fonseca 
y Pimentel, born 1733; and among America’s 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 


123 


numerous writers of verse may be named first 
of all Emma Lazarus (1849-87), Peninah Moise, 
Miriam Del Banco, Nina Morais-Cohen, Cora 
Wilburn, Dr. S. Solis-Cohen, Mary Cohen, Re- 
bekah Hyneman and Morris Rosenfeld. 

THE BANNER OF THE JEW. 

Wake, Israel, wake! Recall to-day 
The glorious Maccabean rage, 

The sire heroic, hoary-gray, 

His fivefold lion—lineage: 

The Wise, the Elect, the Help-of-God, 

The Burst-of-Spring, the Avenging Rod. 

From Mizpah’s mountain ridge—they saw 
Jerusalem’s empty streets, her shrine 
Laid waste where Greeks profaned the Law,- 
With idol and with pagan sign. 

Mourners in tattered black were there. 

With ashes sprinkled on their hair. 

Then from the stony peak there rang 
A blast to ope the graves: down poured 
The Maccabean clan, who sang 
Their battle-anthem to the Lord. 

Five heroes lead, and following, see 
Ten thousand rush to victory! 

Oh for Jerusalem’s trumpet now. 

To blow a blast of shattering power. 

To wake the sleepers high and low, 

And rouse them to the urgent hour! 

No hand for vengeance—but to save, 

A million naked swords should wave. 

Oh, deem not dead that martial fire, 

Say not the mystic flame is spent! 

With Moses’ law and David’s lyre, 

Your ancient strength remains unbent 
Let but an Ezra rise anew, 

To lift the banner of the Jew! 


124 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


A rag, a mock at first—erelong, 

When men have bled and women wept, 

To guard its precious folds from wrong, 

Even they who shrunk, even they who slept, 
Shall leap to bless it, and to save, 

Strike! for the brave revere the brave! 

—Emma Lazarus. 


AS NOVELISTS. 

Next to poetry the highest form of literary 
art is the novel. In this branch there occur 
many great Jewish names: 

Berthold Auerbach, born at Nordstetten, in 
the Black Forest, in 1812, and died in 1882. 
His earliest historical novels treat of Judaism. 
His “Schwarzwalder Dorfgeschichten” (Black 
Forest Village Stories) are remarkable for their 
philosophical reflection and poetical feeling. 
These thrilling descriptions of German village 
life were translated into English, as were also 
his “Barftissele,” (Little Barefoot); “Joseph im 
Schnee,” (Joseph in the Snow); “Auf der 
Hohe” (On the Heights) and “Das Landhaus am 
Rhein” (The Villa on the Rhine). Many of 
his stories were translated into French, Dutch, 
and Swedish. Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81), at 
twenty-two, published his famous “Vivian 
Grey.” The originality, virility and wit made it 
not only the most celebrated book of the day in 
England, but it was translated into the princi- 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 


125 


pal languages of Europe. At twenty-five he 
published “Contarini Fleming, a Psychologi¬ 
cal Autobiography,” which Heine pronounced 
to be “one of the most original works ever 
written,” and which received high praise from 
Goethe. While Disraeli was waiting to enter 
Parliament, he wrote “The Wondrous Tale of 
Alroy,” “The Rise of Iskander,” “Henrietta 
Temple,” and “Venetia.” Disraeli’s most 
famous work in 1870 was “Lothair,” a politico- 
religious novel, aimed at the Fenians, the 
Communists and the Jesuits. It had a great 
success, its circulation in the United States 
alone being 80,000 copies. 

His father, Isaac Disraeli (1766-1848), of 
“Curiosities of Literature” fame, also wrote a 
novel entitled “Despotism, or the Fall of the 
Jesuits.” The works of L. Kompert (b. 1822), 
S. Kohn (b. 1825), A. Bernstein (1812-87), the 
first novelist to popularize science; K. E. 
Franzos (b. 1848), S. H. Mosentlial (1821-77), 
and Max Ring (b. 1817), have been translated 
into most of the European languages. Judaism 
may claim half of the brilliant talents of Paul 
Heyse (b. 1830), and Jules Verne (b. 1828), the 
famous writer of scientific romances, has at 
least a few Jewish corpuscles in his veins.* 


* Grant Allen ha? made this observation: “The list that can 



126 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


The versatile Max Nordau writes the Ger¬ 
man language in a style unequaled by German 
Gentiles. 

Israel Zangwill, born in one of the poorest 
hovels of the Whitechapel Ghetto, at the early 
age of thirty-five stands acknowledged one of 
the foremost of English novelists and critics of 
our day. The following selections are a few 
striking single passages from his different 
works: 

“What is, is right. If aught seems wrong 
below, then wrong it is—of thee to leave it so.”— 
Without Prejudice . 

“Art is truth seen as beauty .”—The Master . 

“The Jewish mission will never be over till 
the Christians are converted to the religion of 
Christ .”—Dreams of the Ghetto . 

“Each poor man is a rung in the Jacob’s 
ladder, by which the rich man may, if he 
is charitable, mount to heaven .”—The King of 
Schnorrers. 

Jewish women have attained considerable 
skill in this branch of literary art. Mme. Fanny 
Lewald (1811-89), Heine’s sister, the Prinzessa 
della Rocca, Grace Aguilar (1816-71), the Dan- 


be compiled of distinguished persons of half-Jewish blood is 
something simply extraordinary, especially when one remembers 
the comparatively small sum total of such intermarriages. ” 



THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 


127 


ish novelist, Olivia Levison (1847-94), known as 
“Sylvia Bennet,” and Rachel Ackerman, are 
representative Jewesses. 

JEWISH DRAMATISTS 

may follow Jewish novelists. Originally the 
Jewish mind had no attraction for the theater. 
To the masses of the Jewish people theatrical 
performances seemed a desecration, and the Old 
Testament laws inculcating humanity to beasts 
and men naturally arrayed them against gladi¬ 
atorial conquests, and their simple minds re¬ 
volted from the themes of the Greek play¬ 
wright, where violence triumphant and conjugal 
infidelity were the favorite subjects of dramatic 
representation. The plays of those days were 
conspicuous for their immorality. The theaters 
were frequently the scenes of idolatrous prac¬ 
tices, so that we find that one of the early rab¬ 
bis exclaimed: “Cursed be they who visit the 
theater and the circus and despise our laws/’ 
Many buffooneries were launched against Juda¬ 
ism. A camel covered with a mourning blanket 
was brought upon the stage, and gave rise to 
this conversation: “Why is the camel trapped 
in mourning?” “Because the Jews, who are 
observing the Sabbatical year, abstain from 
vegetables, and even refuse to eat herbs. They 


128 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

eat only thistles, and the camel is mourning be¬ 
cause he is deprived of his favorite food.” 
Another time a buffoon appears on the stage 
with head closely shaved. “Why is the clown 
mourning?” “Because oil is dear.” “Why is 
oil dear?” “On account of the Jews. On the 
Sabbath day they consume everything they 
earn during the week. Not a stick of wood is 
left to make fire whereby to cook their meals. 
They are forced to burn their beds for fuel, and 
sleep on the floor at night. To get rid of the 
dirt, they use an immense quantity of oil. 
Therefore, oil is dear, and the clown cannot 
grease his hair with pomade.” 

But though the Jewish Church was the de¬ 
clared enemy of the drama, it had no power to 
keep its members from attending it, and we 
find, that despite the rampant antagonism of 
the teachers of the law, the stage gradually 
worked its way into the affection and consider¬ 
ation of the Jewish public, and Josephus speaks 
of Alityros, “a player and a Jew, well favored 
by Nero.” The rabbis and the Church Fathers 
were of one mind in their rigorous injunctions 
against the theater. But all anathemas against 
the circus and the stadium were in vain. One 
hundred and fifty years before the Christian era 
we read of the first Jewish dramatist, the Greek 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 


129 


poet, Ezekielos (Ezekiel) whose play, “The 
Exodus from Egypt,” was modelled after Euri¬ 
pides. The first Jewish contribution to the 
drama, the so-called Purim play, based on “The 
Story of Haman,” dates from the ninth century. 
The Spanish drama now adapted Bible subjects 
to the stage—in fact the first original drama in 
Spanish literature, the celebrated “Celestina,” 
is attributed to a Jew, Marrano Rodrigo da Costa. 

Toward the end of the seventeenth century 
the Portuguese language usurped the place of the 
Spanish among Jews, and we immediately hear 
of a Jewish dramatist, Antonio Jose da Silva. 
“Asire ha-Tikvah,” (The Prisoners of Hope), 
printed in 1763, was the first drama published 
in Hebrew, by Joseph Pensa de la Vega. 
Twenty-one poets in Latin, Hebrew, and Span¬ 
ish verse sang the praises of this seventeen-year- 
old author. A century later Mose Chayyim 
Luzzatto of Padua appeared in “Samson and 
the Philistines,” and though not seventeen 
years old the preserved fragments of his drama 
are declared by critics faultless in verse. 

The first Jewish dramatist to use German was 
Benedict David Arnstein, of Vienna. He was 
succeeded by L. M. Biischenthal. Since his 
time poets of the Jewish race have enriched 
every department of dramatic literature. Mos- 


130 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

enthal’s “Deborah” and “Sonnenwendhoff” 
were adapted to the English, Italian, Danish, 
Hungarian and Bohemian stage. While Kalisch, 
Jacobson, Fulda and Schlessinger contributed 
many comedies to the German stage. 

Ludovic Halevy, the composer’s nephew, in 
opera, comedy and vaudeville, proved himself, 
next to D’Ennery, the most prolific of French 
dramatists. Adolphe Philippe D’Ennery, died 
in Paris on January 25, 1899. He was born in 
that city on June 17, 1811. In 1831 he began 
writing for the stage, and during his long career 
wrote over two hundred plays, many of which 
were written in collaboration. 

M. D’Ennery was best known to American 
theater-goers as the author of “The Two 
Orphans” and “A Celebrated Case.” The list 
of his plays include farce-comedies, vaudevilles, 
dramas, melodramas, and spectacular reviews. 
In collaboration with M. Dumanoir he wrote 
“Don Caesar de Bazan.” “Around the World 
in Eighty Days,” and “Michael Strogoff” were 
written in collaboration with Jules Verne. 

His other collaborators include Messrs. Bour¬ 
geois, Lemoine, Dumas, Grange, M. Cormon, 
Mallian, Dugne, Desnoyer, Foucher, Ed¬ 
mond, Thiboust, Plouvier, Dartois, Albert, 
Hostien, Brisebarre, Decoureelle, and Gabet. 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 131 

During the sixties it was not unusual for 
D’Ennery to have four or five plays being pre¬ 
sented in Paris at the same time. The first 
play which he wrote alone was called “Le 
Changement d’Uniforme,” and was produced in 
1836. In 1847 he received the decoration of the 
Legion of Honor, and in 1859 he was promoted 
to the rank of an officer of the Legion. 

E. Abraham (b. 1833), H. J. Cremieux (b. 1828) 
and A. P. A. Millaud (b. 1836), made great 
contributions to the French stage. Joseph von 
Weilen and Hugo Burger are two of the chief 
dramatists in Austria. Henry James Byron, 
the English playwright, was the son of a Jewish 
mother. He wrote “Fra Diavolo,” “Babes in 
the Wood,” “Jack, the Giant Killer,” “Dund¬ 
reary Married and Done For,” and many other 
popular farces and pantomimes. He made his 
first appearance as an actor in the Globe 
Theater, London, in October, 1869, in his own 
drama, “Not Such a Fool as he Looks.” 

Among the earliest and most prominent 
American dramatists was Mordecai M. Noah. 
He was born in Philadelphia in 1786, and at 
twenty-four he was editor of the City Gazette 
in Charleston, South Carolina, and here his first 
play was enacted, “Paul and Alexis, or The 
Orphans of the Rhine.” It was written for 


132 ^ JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

Mrs. C. L. Young, an English actress. Its 
name was changed to “The Wandering Boys,” 
and in 1820 brought out at the Park Theater 
in New York with great success, and remained 
for years one of the popular attractions on the 
stage. The play was afterward taken to Lon¬ 
don. “She Would Be a Soldier, or The 
Plains of Chippewa,” was a clever and success¬ 
ful play brought out in 1819, at the Park Theater, 
which was enacted by Barnes and Spiller in the 
comic characters, and Miss Leesugg, a celebrated 
English actress. His other plays were: 
“Marion, or The Hero of Lake George,” 
“The Grecian Captive,” “The Fortress of Sor¬ 
rento,” “The New Constitution,” “The Canal,” 
“Yesop Caramatti, or The Siege of Tripoli.” 
His first attempt to obtain pecuniary compensa¬ 
tion for his dramatic productions, was “The 
Siege of Tripoli,” at the Park Theater, May 25, 
1820. It brought a crowded and fashionable 
house, and netted him two thousand dollars. 
Immediately after the performance the house 
took fire and with a generosity characteristic of 
him he gave all the money to the poor members 
of the company who in consequence of the fire 
were thrown out of employment. When the 
theater was rebuilt Noah contributed to the new 
edifice, and to honor the evacuation of New York 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 


133 


by the British in 1783 he wrote a military play 
which he called “Marion, or The Hero of 
Lake George.” The play was given for the 
benefit of his relative, Aaron J. Phillips, the 
actor, and to add to the income Noah had the 
play printed in pamphlet form. Noah was then 
a major in the National Guard, and the literary 
and social lion of the city. His friends crammed 
the theater and to use his own words, “not a 
word of the play was heard,” “and when,” 
writes an eye-witness, “the actors looked upon 
the audience and saw a thousand persons, each 
with a book in hand, turning over the leaves, 
with the accompanying buzz and flutter, they 
became confused, forgot their parts, and to carry 
on the action of the piece had to improvise, b} r 
saying whatever occurred to them, which had 
the effect, also, to confuse the audience in at¬ 
tempting to follow the dialogue, until a climax 
was reached by a way the beneficiary thought 
would produce a great effect. This was the 
entry of Phillips, as the Turkish commander, 
mounted upon a live elephant, that had been 
procured from a menagerie. His figure was 
naturally grotesque, and as the huge animal, 
with Phillips perched on the top of it, came 
marching down to the footlights, to the alarm 
and confusion of the musicians in the orchestra, 


134 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


Phillips, unable to steady himself upon the un¬ 
wieldy beast, toppled over.” Noah was greatly 
ridiculed for his production, and had the manli¬ 
ness to come out in his paper, The National 
Advocate , with a statement that the failure of 
his drama was not owing to the actors, but to 
his own imprudence in furnishing each of the 
audience with a printed copy of the play. 

Another Jewish dramatist was Samuel B. H. 
Judah. He was born in New York in 1799, and 
was of an old colonial Jewish family that had 
settled in New York as early as 1725. His 
father, Benjamin S. Judah, after the close of 
the American Kevolution, became one of the 
most prominent of the merchants of New York, 
a man greatly respected for his integrity and 
valued for his dauntless enterprise. 

Young Judah early directed his attention to¬ 
ward the theater, and in 1820 he wrote a melo¬ 
drama entitled “The Mountain Torrent,” which 
was produced that year, at the Park Theater, 
with fair success. In 1882 he wrote another 
melodrama, “The Bose of Aragon,” that was 
acted at the same theater, and was much more 
successful. This was followed by another play, 
“The Tale of Lexington,” and in 1823 a benefit 
was given to him at the Park Theater, at which 
the two latter plays were acted. 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 135 

In 1838 Jonas B. Phillips produced a melo¬ 
drama called “Cold Stricken,” and though it 
had the attraction of Mrs. Barnes and Judah, it 
was not very successful, but was appreciated 
by the managers, who gave the author a benefit. 

He afterward wrote a drama, “The Evil Eye,” 
which was produced at the Bowery Theater in 
New York with great effect. 

H. B. Sommer attained distinction as the 
author of “Our Show,” and “Help Wanted,” 
while David Belasco and Sydney Rosenfeld are 
among the most versatile successful dramatists 
of to-day. 

JEWISH GENIUS ON THE STAGE. 

The greatest name among French actresses is 
acknowledged to be that of Rachel (Elizabeth 
Rachel Felix) (1820-58), the daughter of a Jew¬ 
ish peddler, and her only rival in European fame 
is another Jewess, Sarah Bernhardt (b. 1844). 
Of Adolph Ritter von Sonnenthal, the dramatic 
idol of the Austrian capital, and one of the 
greatest living interpreters of the drama, the 
New York Herald recently said: 

“Most successful from every point of view 
has been this eminent actor’s career. Born at 
Budapest in 1834, he began his theatrical work 
by playing minor parts in several of the pro- 


136 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

vincial theaters in Germany, and at the age of 
twenty-two he made his debut in Vienna. From 
that time he has held the position of leading 
actor in the Austrian capital. 

“In 1881 was celebrated the twenty-fifth anni¬ 
versary of his connection with the Hofburg 
Theater. The people went wild with enthu¬ 
siasm. After the performance they took the 
horses from the carriage and drew him through 
the streets. Among the distinguished persons 
who witnessed the performance were the Em¬ 
peror of Austria, the crown prince and all the 
members of the court. 

“There is in Austria an imperial mandate 
forbidding audiences to call actors before the 
curtain, but on this night it was revoked by 
special permission and Sonnenthal was called 
out no less than forty-two times. The emperor 
further manifested his pleasure by conferring 
on him the title of Ritter Von, thus changing 
his name from plain Adolf Sonnenthal. He re¬ 
ceived at the same time the royal gold medal 
for art and wisdom from the Ring of Bavaria 
and the Royal Order of the Red Eagle from the 
Emperor of Germany. What especially grat¬ 
ified him, however, was the fact that from all 
the German theaters in the world came tokens 
of esteem and appreciation, the gift from the 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 137 

Thalia Theater in this city being a golden laurel 
wreath. 

“Sonnenthal is equally admirable in comedy 
and tragedy, among the plays in which he has 
frequently been seen being ‘Hamlet,’ ‘The Mar¬ 
quis von Villmer,’ ‘The Daughter of Faricius,’ 
‘Uriel Acosta,’ ‘Wallenstein’s Death,’ ‘Vater 
und Sohn,’ and ‘Ein Attache.’ Very rarely has 
the actor been seen in any of these perform¬ 
ances outside of Vienna, for the position which 
he holds there is for life and Lis presence is con¬ 
stantly required. He can at any time retire on 
a pension, but he has as yet given no evidence 
that he intends to do so. 

“A characteristic story is told of the manner 
in which Sonnenthal first became impressed 
with the idea of becoming an actor. While a 
lad he visited one day the Hofburg Theater, 
Vienna, being attracted by a strong and popular 
play entitled ‘Erbforster.’ It made such a deep 
impression and aroused so much ambition in 
him that on the following day he went to Davi¬ 
son and begged him to give him a chance to be¬ 
come an actor. He was asked to give some evi¬ 
dence of his ability in that direction, and he at 
once began to declaim Karl Moor’s famous 
monologue, beginning ‘0, Menschen, Menschen!’ 
Sonnenthal wrought himself up so much while 


138 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

delivering these impressive lines that at the 
close he was almost exhausted. Fortunately 
there was a chair near, and into this he flung 
himself with such force that it went to pieces 
under him. This was more than his critic had 
counted upon, and he could not help remarking: 

“ ‘Yes, young man, you certainly have some 
talent, hut that is no reason why you should 
break my furniture.’ 

“ Sonnenthal made profuse apologies, and the 
interview ended pleasantly and profitably for 
the young aspirant to dramatic honors. 

“Sonnenthal is on terms of intimacy with 
most of the leading men in Austria, and Em¬ 
peror Francis Joseph has more than once given 
evidence of his high appreciation of his dra¬ 
matic genius. Indeed, Sonnenthal, more than 
any other actor, has been for years one of the 
attractions of Vienna. 

“Here is a curious story that well illustrates 
Sonnenthal’s steadfastness of character. A few 
years ago his youngest son, Paul, who had 
served in the cavalry for one year as a volunteer, 
became so strongly attached to military life 
that he made up his mind to adopt the army as 
a profession. He was well qualified for a mili¬ 
tary career, and at his first examination for a 
lieutenant’s commission he received such high 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 


139 


marks that the examining board not only com¬ 
plimented him, but also urged him to remain 
permanently in the army. 

“The young man’s military aspirations, how¬ 
ever, were soon dashed to the ground by his 
father, who insisted that his son, being a He¬ 
brew, could not afford to renounce his religious 
scruples for the purpose of obtaining a position 
in the army, however high. No explanation, no 
entreaty was potent enough to make the elder 
Sonnenthal alter his decision in this regard. 
Finding further opposition useless, the young 
man abandoned his cherished dream and entered 
the office of a Vienna banker. His father’s 
action in the matter will be understood by those 
who know how difficult it is for a Hebrew to 
obtain any social recognition in the Austrian 
army. 

“One of Sonnenthal’s most intimate friends 
was the late Archduke Carl Ludwig, of Austria, 
brother of the present emperor. Shortly before 
his death he was interviewed about the great 
actor and he said among other things: ‘How re¬ 
markable it is that no member of Sonnenthal’s 
family has inherited his genius as an actor! In 
fact, I can recall only one other similar case, 
that of the Devrients family. And by the way,’ 
continued the archduke, ‘my youngest son, 


140 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

Carl, is quite an amateur actor. Indeed, he has 
shown no little talent in that direction, and 
what is not generally known, he has studied 
under Sonnenthal. If he had been born in a 
peasant’s cottage, he might have won laurels as 
an actor, but fate has willed otherwise.’ ” 

Other distinguished artists on the European 
stage have been, Madame Judith (b. 1829),Zarie 
M. Nathalie (b. 1816), John Braham (1774-1864), 
v T hoso dramatic genius was equalled by his 
peerless voice; L. Barnay (b. 1842), B. Dawison 
(1818-72), Morris Barnett (1800-56), Maria 
Theresa Bland (1769-1810), Helena Levison 
(1852-88), Ada Isaacs Menken (1849-68), Rebecca 
Isaacs (1828-77), and Henry Sloman (1793-1873), 
while among European singers may be named 
that original genius, Pauline Lucca, “the trans- 
cendentally human,” and Caroline Gomperz- 
Bettelheim, the famous Austrian Court Con¬ 
tralto. 

Aaron J. Phillips, Emanuel Judah, and Moses 
S. Phillips, in the early history of the American 
stage, and Rose Eytinge, J. Newton Gotthold, 
Daniel E. Bandmann, Ray Samuel, Sally Cohen, 
Maurice Barrymore, Minnie Seligman and M. 
B. Curtis in later days achieved at least popu¬ 
larity and fame. Junius Brutus Booth, father 
of Edwin Booth, was a Jew. The leading 
managers are Jews. 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 


141 


ESSAYISTS. 

We may now add litterateurs of the essayist 
type. At the head of this class we may justly 
place Ludwig Borne (1786-1837) the brave war¬ 
rior in the literary war of liberation, while Ga¬ 
briel Kiesser (1806-63) and Karl Blind (b. 1826) 
deserve companionship with Borne. Grace 
Aguilar, in whose soul burned the sacred fire of 
the prophets, though a writer of a different class, 
may be mentioned in this connection. Her life 
was a blessing for her people and for humanity. 
Her book of poems “The Magic Wreath,” and 
her well-known volume on “Home Influence,” 
still finds favor among Englishwomen. In 1847, 
when just thirty-one years old, her beautiful 
soul shook off the mortal coil. 

To these writers we may add literary critics. 

The chief Jewish name in this branch is that 
of George Brandes (b. 1842), to whom we may 
add Isaac Disraeli, and Michael Bernays (1834- 
97). 

From belles-lettres we may turn to the press. 

Anti-Semites assert, and with truth, that 
the Jews have a preponderating influence on the 
German and French press. Many of the chief 
reviews and influential daily newspapers in 
England, Italy, Denmark, and the United States 
are either owned or edited by Jews. 


142 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


THE JEWS IN MUSIC. 

Turning from the arts of rhyme and reason 
let us briefly enumerate the Jewish celebrities 
in the art of rhythm and melody—the art most 
cultivated by Jews. Among their musical gen¬ 
iuses are first of all Felix Bartholdy Mendels¬ 
sohn (1809-47), the wunderkind of modern music, 
Jacques Francois Fromental Halevy (1799- 
1862), Giacomo Meyerbeer (1794-1863), Jacques 
Offenbach (1819-1882), K. Goldmark (b.1832), and 
Johann Strauss (b. 1825), the great waltz king. 
The musical leaders of England are J. Moscheles 
(1794-1870), F. H. Cowen (b. 1852), Sir Julius 
Benedict (1805-85), SirM. Costa (1810-78), Sir A. 
Sullivan (b. 1844), and Charles K. Salaman 
(b. 1814). Of minor composers we may select, of 
Frenchmen, C. H. V. Alkan (b. 1813), Jules Cohen 
(b. 1835), and Emilie Jonas (b. 1827). Among 
the Swedes, J. A. Josephson achieved fame. 
Among America’s great leaders we may name 
KudolphAronson, Wilhelm Gericke, Carl Wolf- 
sohn, Jacob Kosewald, and the Damroschs, the 
Blutkopfs of Germany, Damrosch being the 
literal translation into Hebrew of the German 
name. 

The Jews have perhaps achieved as great 
triumphs as performers as they have as com¬ 
posers. The piano found its greatest master in 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 148 

Anton Rubinstein, while Moritz Rosenthal and 
Joseph Hoffman bid fair to equal him. Joseph 
Joachim played the violin in a manner never 
equalled before his time, nor since. Jules Levy 
stands first among cornetists, and Louis Blum- 
enberg is the leading solo violoncellist in this 
country. 

Wagner wrote Das Judenthum in der Music 
to show that the Aryan had originality, while 
the Jews were only adusters and adapters. We 
leave the critics to determine this point. But this 
we know, that when Wagner produced an opera 
to show the Teutonic superiority over the Jews, 
he was dumfounded when on the night of the 
performance all the first violins were in the 
hands of Jews. 

AS PAINTERS AND SCULPTORS. 

As painters, owing to the strictures of their 
religion they have just begun to achieve distinc¬ 
tion. Solomon J. Solomon stands easily first 
among English artists. Joseph Israels is famed 
for his celebrated delineations of Dutch fisher 
life. Sir J. E. Millais, it is said, has Jewish 
blood in his veins. E. Bedemon deserves men¬ 
tion here, and so does A. Solomon, once cele¬ 
brated for his painting, “Waiting for the Ver¬ 
dict.” S. A. Hart must be named as the first 


144 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

Jewish Royal academician. A. M. Jacobs, the 
brothers Lehman, E. Levy, H. L. Levy, R. Ul- 
mann, and J. Worms, all Frenchmen; the Ger¬ 
mans, F. E. Meyerheim and Heinrich Schles- 
singer; J. Ashkenazi and Leon Baksta, among 
the Russians, are recognized as first-class 
artists. 

Distinguished artists among Americans in¬ 
clude Herman N. Hynemann, Constant Meyer, 
Henry Mosler, George D. Maduro Peixotto, H. 
Sailer Levvy, and Jacob H. Lazarus. Antokol¬ 
ski is the greatest Russian sculptor, and among 
the first of French sculptors are Solomon Adam 
and Emilie Soldi. Moses J. Ezekiel, born in 
Richmond, Virginia, in 1844, whose works 
have been exhibited in all the art centers of 
Europe, and whose work, “Religious Liberty,” 
is now at Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, 
is perhaps the most celebrated of his num¬ 
erous productions. Charles Waldstein, son of a 
New York optician, is the greatest living author¬ 
ity on Greek art and archaeology. He holds 
the position of director of the Fitzwilliam Mu¬ 
seum of the University of Cambridge, England. 

Great Jewish architects seem few, but Al- 
drophe among the French, Stiasney among the 
Austrians, Hirsch and Basevi among the Eng¬ 
lish, Charles H. Israels, and Leopold Eidlitz, 
both of New York, and Dankman Adler, of 


THE JEW IN THE ARTS. 


145 


Chicago, are splendid representatives of the 
genius of their race in this art. Alfred R. Wolf, 
of New York, is a recognized authority in his 
specialty of steam engineering. Mendez Cohen, 
of Baltimore, ranks as one of the most scholarly 
and skillful civil engineers in this country. Cle¬ 
mens Herchel, of Holyoke, is a recognized 
authority on hydraulic engineering. 






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The Jew in the Sciences. 


Poet, lawyer, painter, actor, statesman, physician, musician 
—there is not a branch of learning, art, or scienoe, in whicb the 
Jew is not in the front rank. The thousand years of oppression 
have left no mark upon his mighty spirit. He steps from me 
lowest depths, where all the world flings mud upon him, straight 
to the front, and he stands there. “ Behold!” he says, '• Thus and 
thus have I done. Give me, too—me—a place among the immor¬ 
tals! Other races have been persecuted and despised What 
have they done? Nothing! Parsee, Czech, Basque, Wend, 
Celt, Cagot—what have they done? Nothing! Nothing! It is 
not for nothing alone in our degradation that we were the Chosen 
People. Wait—this is but a beginning—wait some fifty years. 
Then the reign of the Jews will begin. First in Western Europe; 
then in America. . . . For as we have been brought so low 

in the day of humiliation, we shall be exalted so high in the hour 
of triumph. Walter Besant, “The Rebel Queen.” 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 


,149 


CHAPTER VII. 

THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 

Let us begin by enumerating a few names of 
Hebrews who have reached eminence in philoso¬ 
phy. In the first half of the first century A.D., 
there lived in Alexandria the philosopher Philo. 
He was thoroughly trained in grammar, rhetoric 
and music, deeply versed in Greek literature, 
familiar with the physical and mathematical 
sciences, and master of all the philosophical 
works. While one of the ornaments of the 
Hellenic literature of that period, he was 
chiefly moved by the teachings of Moses, and 
their practical effects upon the Jews in contrast 
with the moral dissoluteness of the Greeks he 
saw about him, he formed in his own soul his 
sense of right and wrong. The highest virtue 
according to him contains two main duties: the 
worship of God, and love and justice to all men. 

The most powerful light of the Middle Ages 
was the great Maimonides (1135-1204), “the 
Jewish Aristotle.” His great philosophical 
work, “The Guide for the Perplexed,” has been 


150 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


translated many times into Latin, German, 
Spanish, English, etc. Joel has shown that 
even Spinoza was dependent upon Maimonides. 
Maimonides endeavored to reconcile divine with 
human wisdom, as manifested by Aristotle. 
Maimonides’ path to guide the perplexed is 
marked out for him in the Old Testament, link¬ 
ing philosophy and faith in perfect harmony. 

The work of Levi Ben Gerson, the defender of 
Maimonides, attracted the special attention of 
Reuchlin and Kepler. Chasdai Crescas, the op¬ 
ponent of Maimonides, whose “Light of God,” 
which appeared in 1410, was the first to combat 
systematically the philosophy of Aristotle. 
Though only trained in the ordinary Rabbinic 
schools, Solomon Maimon (1753-1800) is another 
remarkable philosopher that Judaism has pro¬ 
duced. Though his metaphysical powers were 
soon eclipsed by Fichte, Hegel and Schelling, 
it is conceded that his criticism struck at the root 
of the Kantian system. Maimon was also one of 
the earliest forerunners of Symbolic Logic. 
Spinoza, referring for support of his opinions to 
the Bible, in which he distinguished between the 
facts narrated and the coloring received from 
the minds of the writers, laid the foundation of 
the rationalistic school of interpretation in Ger¬ 
many. Moses Mendelssohn was the pioneer of 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 151 

modern German classical literature. Thus with 
regard to philosophy it has been well said: 
“Without Judaism no scholastics and no ad¬ 
vance, and therefore no development in philoso¬ 
phy.*' But we must not pass by Moses Men¬ 
delssohn, this illustrious philosopher of Ger¬ 
many, with a mere sentence. To his hospitable 
home flocked Nicolai, Lessing, Goethe, Herder, 
Wieland, Hennings, Abt, Camp, Moritz, etc. In 
fact no great man ever came to Berlin without 
seeking Moses Mendelssohn, and yet this emi¬ 
nent genius, who, according to the inscription 
on a bust in Professor Herz’s studio at Berlin, 

“ MOSES MENDELSSOHN, 

The greatest sage since Socrates, 

His own Nation’s glory, 

Any Nation’s ornament. 

The confidant 
Of Lessing and of Truth. 

He died 
As he lived 
Serene and wise,” 

was merely tolerated as the “shopman” of a 
Berlin merchant, Bernhard, his co-religionist. 

By edict of Frederick the Great, dated 1752, 
that despotic monarch limited the number of 
Jews he would permit to reside in Berlin, and 
ordered that the exclusive privilege should be 
purchased. A Prussian Jew was obliged to pay 
for permission to marry; he had also to pay a 


152 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


tax upon every child, and if the number of Jews 
in the Prussian capital exceeded the limit fixed 
by the king’s edict, the surplus was forced to 
quit the country. The whole Jewish community 
was held responsible for theft committed by a 
Jew. Prussian-born Jews were not allowed to 
enter the army, nor to become agriculturists, 
nor manufacturers, nor to pursue liberal pro¬ 
fessions. They were only privileged to study 
medicine and mathematics. A Jew who was 
not born in Berlin could not obtain permission 
to reside there, unless he was in the service of 
one of his privileged co-religionists. Mendels¬ 
sohn, a native of Dessau, was indebted to a 
Frenchman for the privilege of residing freely 
at Berlin. The Marquis d’Argens addressed 
a petition to Frederick in favor of Men¬ 
delssohn, to whom the king was partial. The 
memorial was in the following terms: “A bad 
Catholic philospher entreats a bad Protest¬ 
ant philosopher to grant the privilege to a bad 
Jewish philosopher.” The king, perhaps 
amused at the oddness of the appeal, granted 
to Mendelssohn the permission asked for, but 
which, it was understood, was not to be ex¬ 
tended to his descendants, and for this grant a 
thousand thalers were demanded. This tax 
was, however, remitted. This almost incredible 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 153 

narrow-minded illiberality and antagonism to 
Jewish interests, of which the modern anti- 
Semites are still giving the world too frequent 
and too infamous exhibitions, accounts for the 
descendants of Moses Mendelssohn having 
abandoned Judaism and professed Christianity. 
Not only members of that gifted family, but 
such eminent artists as Heine, Moscheles, 
Joachim, Rubinstein, Disraeli, Herschel and 
other distinguished German, English, Polish, 
Hungarian, and Russian Jewish musicians, 
poets, painters, literati, scientists and states¬ 
men, finding that faithfulness to their an¬ 
cient creed would interfere with the free exer¬ 
cise of their professional career, renounced its 
practice, and professed the dominant religion of 
their native country. This at once removed 
every obstruction and restriction, and the reli¬ 
gious prejudice from which they would other¬ 
wise have suffered. 

Other Jewish names of distinguished philoso¬ 
phers are those of H. Steinthal (1823-99), M. 
Lazarus (b. 1824), A. Franck (1809-92), and 
Hermann Cohen (b. 1840), authority on Kant. 

JEWISH HISTORIANS. 

The greatest historian of the Christian church 
is Neander (1789-1850), whose original name 



154 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


was David Mendel, and whose father was a Jew¬ 
ish peddler. Alfred Edersheim (d. 1889), 
whose “Life of Christ” is the greatest ever 
written—defending the orthodox dogma of 
Jesus against the attacks of Strauss—was 
a Jew. Of Jewish historians H. Graetz 
(1817-91) is undoubtedly the greatest. J. M. 
Jost (1793-1866) comes next to him, and then 
Joseph Salvador (1796-1873), who was influen¬ 
tial in France. J. Da Costa (1798-1860) is the 
Dutch historian of his nation. Sir Francis 
Cohen Palgrave (1788-1861) stands among the 
first of England’s historians. G. F. Herzberg, 
the German Greek historian, is said to be a Jew, 
so was S. Romanin (1808-61), the historian of 
Venice and Hungary, and Harry Bresslau 
(b. 1848) is the German historian. Professor 
Ludwig Geiger (b. 1848) is the leading authority 
on the Renaissance. 

ANTIQUAKIANS 

may follow historians. One of the chief author¬ 
ities on ancient epigraphy is M. A. Levy (1817- 
72). The most voluminous work ever written 
on the drama was written by J. L. Klein (1810- 
76). The most distinguished archaeologist in 
England is Professor Solomon Schechter, for¬ 
merly of Cambridge, now of the University of 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 155 

London. A striking illustration of the adapta¬ 
bility of the Jewish race is Solomon Reinach, 
born in 1858, member of the French Institute, 
director of the Archaeological Museum, in St. 
Germain-en-Laye, near Paris—this forty-one- 
year-old son of a German Jew has his office in 
the famous Chateau of King Francis I. of 
France. His brother Theodor, born in 1860, is 
also a famous archaeologist and historian, while 
the youngest brother of this remarkable family, 
Joseph, born in 1856, has been secretary of 
Gambetta, editor of the great journal La 
Republique Frangaise, deputy for more than a de¬ 
cade. He lost his seat as deputy and sacri¬ 
ficed rank as officer in the French army because 
of his defense of Captain Dreyfus. Among 
Americans, Dr. Cyrus Adler of Columbian 
University and Smithsonian Institution, at 
Washington, is regarded as an authority on Ori¬ 
ental history and archaeology. 

In the science of economics we find many in¬ 
fluential Jewish names. David Ricardo (1772- 
1823) is second only to Adam Smith (1723-90). 
Karl Marx (1818-83) and Ferdinand Lassalle 
(1825-63), the head and social centers of modern 
Socialism. Other Jewish economists are E. 
Morpurgo (1836-85) and L. Luzzatto (b. 1843). 
Columbia College has two Jewish professors, 


156 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

the University of New York, the College of the 
City of New York, Yale, Harvard, Johns Hop¬ 
kins, Columbia, and the universities of Wis¬ 
consin and Pennsylvania are among other well 
known colleges which have professors of the 
Hebrew race. And the professorships filled by 
Jews show that they have a peculiar aptitude 
for the highest political science. In the science 
of statistics M. Block (b. 1816) and J. Korosi 
(b. 1844) have achieved distinction. 

MATHEMATICS. 

This is another specialty of the Jews. The 
greatest mathematician of the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury was Professor J. C. Sylvester (1814-94), 
cO'founder with his friend, Professor Cayler, of 
the modern higher algebra. C. G. J. Jacobi 
(1804-51), the German mathematician, after 
whom certain intricate functions are termed 
“Jacobians,” L. Cremona (b. 1830), H. Fili- 
powski (1817-72), the compiler of some anti- 
logarithmetic tables; 0. Terquem (1782-1862), 
Maurice Levy (b. 1838), B. Gompertz (1788- 
1865), L. Bendavid (1762-1832), J. Blum (b. 1812), 
L. Kronecker (b. 1823), and G. Cantor, the 
historian of mathematics, are the names of 
a few Jews who distinguished themselves as 
mathematicians. A fact worthy of mention in 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 157 

this connection is that many of the most cele¬ 
brated chess players of both hemispheres have 
been Jews. 

ASTKONOMY. 

When we come to look into their merits as 
astronomers, we find that at an early date the 
Jews had their own chronology and their own 
calendar—they were therefore bound to study 
astronomy. Gamaliel is stated to have used the 
telescope (of course without glasses) in the year 
A.D. 89. Mar Samuel wrote on the causes and 
changes of the seasons, the manuscript of which 
still exists in the Vatican. 

About the year 800 Rabbi Sahal al Tabari 
was the first to translate Ptolemaeus into 
Arabic and discovered the refraction of light. 

Maimonides’ refutation of astrological super¬ 
stitions failed to make Christian priests and 
princes see the errors of their way. In the 
twelfth century John of Savilla, or De Luna, 
wrote the first arithmetic deciphering decimal 
fractions. 

In the thirteenth century the book Sohar 
taught the revolution of the earth about its axis 
as the cause of night and day long before 
Copernicus. To Judas Ben Hakohenis ascribed 
at about this time the division of all the stars 
into the forty-eight star pictures. 


158 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


Under Alphonso XI. Rabbi David Audrahan, 
Isaac Ben Samuel, Ben Israel and Jacob Ben 
Tibbon are praised for working out astronomical 
tables, while Magister Leo de Bagnola’s de¬ 
scription of an astronomical instrument which 
he discovered was translated into Latin at the 
special request of Pope Clement VI., and Kepler 
left no stone unturned to obtain it. In all mat¬ 
ters intellectual as well as in all the sciences 
the Jews in the Middle Ages were infinitely 
superior to their Christian contemporaries. 

Among the greatest astronomers of Jewish 
parentage in recent years may be named Sir 
William Herschel (1738-1822), his sister Caro¬ 
line L. Herschel (1750-1848), and Sir John Fred¬ 
erick William Herschel (1792-1871), the son of 
Sir William; Hermann Goldschmidt (1802-66), 
discoverer of fourteen asteroids, between 1852 
and 1861, and who pointed out more than ten 
thousand stars that were wanting in the maps 
of the academy at Berlin; W. Beer (1797-1850), 
the composer Meyerbeer’s brother and the first 
cartographist of the moon, and M. Loewy 
(b. 1833), of the Paris observatory. 

EXPLORERS. 

Benjamin of Tudela, who traveled from 1165 to 
1173,explored nearly the whole world of that day. 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 1,59 

His book, Maseot Benjamin {Iter Benjaminum), 
has been translated into nearly every European 
language. The Jews took part in the discovery 
of the East Indies through Abraham de Bahia 
and Joseph Zapatero de Lamego, who were sent 
by Juan II. to explore the coast of the Bed Sea 
and the Island of Ormuzd. Dr. Kayserling’s 
researches show that Jews were concerned in 
the discovery of America. Emin Pasha 
(Schnitzler), (1840-93), Gustav Oppert, the Ger¬ 
man explorer, and Ed. Glaser, the Arabian ex¬ 
plorer, are a few names of Hebrews who re¬ 
cently won distinction as discoverers. 

PHILOLOGY. 

The Jews appear to have an innate talent for 
language. Their dispersion among all the 
nations no doubt contributed to this. They are 
the founders of our scientific philology. The 
philosophic side of philology is dominated by 
the school of M. Lazarus (b. 1824), and H. Stein- 
thal (1823-99). In comparative etymology, Th. 
Benfey (1809-82), is one of the acknowledged 
masters, holding the same position in Germany 
that Max Muller does in England. Michel Breal 
(b. 1832) is one of the leading authorities on 
comparative mythology and philology in France. 
In classic philology, M. Bernhardy (1800-75), 


160 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

the famous historian of Greek and Eoman litera¬ 
ture; Ludwig Friedlander (b. 1814), Jacob Ber- 
nays (1834-82), W. Freund (b. 1806), and Henry 
Weil (b. 1818), must be ranked among the first 
authorities. 

Modern languages have always found their 
masters among the Jews—A. L. David (b. 1811), 
among the Turks; M. Bloch (b. 1815), and 
Armin Yambery, professor of Oriental lan¬ 
guages at the University of Budapest, among 
the Hungarians; James Darmesteter (1849-93), 
and his brother Arsene (1846-89), among the 
French; Daniel Sanders (1819-97), among the 
Germans and modern Greeks; and M. Lansdau 
(1837-90) among the Italians. H. G. Ollen- 
dorf (1805-65) invented the method by which 
modern languages are taught. Jules Oppert 
(b. 1825) is the greatest Assyriologist after 
Kawlinson. Jewish names connected with phi¬ 
lology crowd upon us too numerous to mention. 
Among other great Jewsh names from David 
Kimchi, or Kimhi (d. 1240), the French Hebrew 
scholar (whose exegetical and linguistic writ¬ 
ings are to this day considered standard works 
by Hebrew students), are Joseph R. Dercn- 
bourg (1811-95) and his son Hartwig (b. 1843), 
Leopold Zunz (1794-1887), A. Geiger (1810- 
67), and M. Kayserling (b. 1829). 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 161 

The Jewish Rabbis furnished to Martin Luther 
the knowledge of the whole Bible in the original 
text, so that it has been well said: “Without 
Hebrew no Reformation, and without the Jews 
no Hebrew, for they were the only teachers of 
this language.” But for the Jews we might 
still be sitting in the sable night of the sixteenth 
century. 

Abdallah Ibn Salam and Mukchairik helped 
Mohammed to edit the Koran. 

No people in the world take more pride in 
what they consider up-to-dateness than the 
Higher Critics, who consider Biblical criticism 
a pecular concoction of their wonderful nine¬ 
teenth century intellects. They are only six¬ 
teen hundred years behind the Jew, for in the 
middle of the third century Simon Ben Lachish 
declared that Job never lived, that he was the 
product of a noble poem and that the names of 
angels were borrowed by the Jews from a for¬ 
eign people while they were in exile. In the 
ninth century Saadia tried to explain away the 
miracles in true nineteenth century fashion. 
In the eleventh century Chofni declared the 
witch of Endor and Balaam’s speaking ass as 
mere hallucinations. About this time Ben 
Iasus (Jizchaki) proved that portions of the 
book of Moses could not be ascribed to Moses. 


162 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

About the middle of the twelfth century Abra¬ 
ham Ibn Esra published a critical commentary 
on Isaiah which is up to date with our highest 
critics. 

BIOLOGY. 

Among the greatest names in German botany 
are F. Cohn (1828-98) and 8. Pringsheim (1824- 
94). In the department of physiology, one of 
the greatest names in the past is that of G. G. 
Valentin (1808-83), who wrote a famous text 
book and whose “Valentin’s Knife’’is still used 
by specialists. J. Bernstein (b. 1839), J. Rosen¬ 
thal (b. 1826), and J. Cohnheim (b. 1839), have 
two books in the “International Scientific 
Series,’’ most of them on the physiology of 
nerves. H. Cohn (b. 1838), the oculist, and G. 
Schwalbe (b. 1846) are other Jewish names 
connected with physiology. P. J. Reiss (1831- 
83) was distinguished as a physicist, and the 
first Jew to enter the Berlin Academy. Other 
names will meet us among the 

JEWS IN MEDICINE, 

of all callings the one in which they have been 
least interrupted. As physicians the Jews have 
always held peculiarly high positions. During 
the Middle Ages they were sought for all over 
the world, so that even Popes who issued bulls 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 163 

against them and interdicted the practice of 
medicine, would only intrust their bodies to the 
care of Jewish physicians, while there was 
hardly a king or queen in all Europe during the 
Middle Ages but employed Jewish physicians. 

In the thirteenth century we find Bachiel Ibn 
Alconfctantine, the favorite and physician of 
King Jayme. When the brother of King Louis 
IX., of France, the Count of Pitou and Toulouse, 
was stricken with disease of the eyes, they had 
to beg for help from Abraham of Aragon, the 
most celebrated oculist of his period. Isaac 
Zarfati was physician to Pope Clement VII., 
Giacomo Mantini to Paul III., and Grosefonte 
Zarfati to Julius II. Alphonso X., surnamed 
The Wise, had for court physician Don Judah 
Ben Moses Cohen. Joseph Orabuena was phy¬ 
sician to Charles III. of Navarra, Meir Alguades, 
to Don Henry III. of Castile. Francis I. of 
France refused to employ Christian physicians, 
and when on sending to Spain for a Jewish phy¬ 
sician he could not obtain any from there, he 
sent to Constantinople. Many of the kings of 
Portugal had Jewish physicians—Gedalya was 
physician of Henry of Castile, Moses Navarra 
of Joao, Gedalyah ben Solomon of Duarte. In 
Germany the Emperor Frederick III. had as his 
physician Jacob Ben Jechiel Loans, upon whom 


164 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


he conferred knighthood. Benjamin Musafia 
was physician to King Christian IV. of Den¬ 
mark. Elias Montalto was physician to Maria 
de Medici. Farragut was court physician to 
Charlemagne. Maimonides was the physician 
of Saladin and refused the invitation to be court 
physician to Bichard Coeur de Lion. Rodrigo 
Lopez was court physician to Queen Elizabeth. 
Joseph Ben Jachya was physician of Sultan el 
Malik el Dhahir, and Haham Jacob of Sultan Mo¬ 
hammed III. Indeed “until the medical schools 
at Montpellier and Salerno, which were chiefly 
founded by Jews, were organized, the Jews 
were almost the only physicians in the whole 
of the then known world. Later the Arabs 
joined them in this work, and when these were 
expelled from Spain the Jews were again the 
only representatives of medical science in 
Europe. The brutal and ignorant Christians of 
that time even arrived at the absurd supersti¬ 
tion that only the Jews were possessed of the 
talent for medicine. Secular and spiritual 
princes who plundered and persecuted the Jews 
in the [most shameful manner still refused to 
accept a Christian, nay, even a converted Jew, 
as their court physician.” There was a time 
in which the Jews as court physicians held the 
lives of all the princes and prelates in their 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 165 

hands. Even in the sixteenth century, by far 
the greater number of the most celebrated phy¬ 
sicians were Jews. Among modern names in 
medicine that of Traube (1818-76) stands second 
to none. Cesare Lombroso (b. 1836) is the great¬ 
est European expert on insanity. F. R. Lieb- 
reich (1830-87), the ophthalmologist, invented 
the “Eye mirror,” A. Hirsch (1817-94) is the 
standing authority on history, geography and 
pathology. H. Zeissl (1817-84) is the chief 
authority on syphilis. K. F. Canstatt’s (1807- 
50), ‘‘Yierteljahreschrift,’’ was the repository 
of the first German medical work of the time. 
E. Altschul (b. 1812), was a leading homeo¬ 
pathist. M. E. 0. Liebreich (b. 1839), brother 
of the ophthalmologist, discovered croton- 
chloral-hydrate and was the first to use chloral- 
hydrate as an senesthetic and hypnotic. These 
are only a few of the great Jewish European 
names in medicine. The universities of Ger¬ 
many were closed to the Jews until 1847, and 
yet to-day in the University of Vienna, in the 
medical department alone, twelve of the pro¬ 
fessorships are held by Jews. Out of the eight¬ 
een hundred professorships in the German uni¬ 
versities the Jews already hold eighty. In 
America, in every specialty Jewish physicians 
are so numerous and so eminently successful 


166 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

that to publish any names at all would be an 
invidious distinction. 

Since writing the foregoing we chanced upon 
an article in an old number of “The American 
Hebrew,” by Rev. H. Pereira Mendes, M.D., 
minister of the congregation of Spanish and 
Portuguese Jews, New York, which may be of 
interest to those who wish to know more of the 
history of the Jew in medicine. He says: 

“With the decline of the Rabbinical power in 
Palestine, we must look for notable examples of 
the Jew in medicine in Persia, where worked 
such as Maser Djawah, Isaac ben Emran, ben 
Nun the Rabbi of Seleucia; in Egypt, where 
flourished Isaac ben Soleiman, whose works on 
fevers, remedies, ailments, pulse-beat, were 
long quoted; in Sicily and Italy, where lived 
the famed Sabbethai Donolo. 

“In the Arabian school of medicine, the Greek 
system was, of course, utilized—a system 
already illustrious with such names as Hippo¬ 
crates the Great, Herophilus, Erasistratus, As- 
clepiades, Cicero’s friend; Soranus, praised by 
Tertullian and Galen. Thus at Damascus the 
science was pursued with Greeks to guide and 
with Jews to teach. Honein Ibn Ishak el Ibadi 
ranked high—Abulpharag calls him a Christian, 
but Basnage declares him a Jew. Mesu, of 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 167 

Damascus, is a name that will always live in 
the annals of healing. This issue of the Orient 
is worthy of being mentioned with Abucasis or 
Abulcasis, or Abu T Kasim, of Zahra, near Cor¬ 
dova, in the distant West. The De Simplicitus 
(materia medica) of the former, the Altasrif 
(cyclopaedia of the healing art) of the latter 
were for centuries high standards of authority. 

“Greater than these still was Avicenna—was 
not his “Canon” used as a text-book in the Lou¬ 
vain’s house of learning and in Montpellier’s 
classic precincts until the seventeenth century 
was far advanced? 

“Thus we are prepared to find Jewish influ¬ 
ence at work with Arab environment to foster it, 
in fair Spain, in France, in every land where 
for our nation a bright sunshine lit up the 
gloom of Hebrew exile. ‘Vix credibile est qua 
mentis contentione et virtutis am ore hoc 
genus hominum in bonas disciplinas praecipu 
sacrarum literarum explicationum, philoso- 
phiam ac medicinam et omnes liberales artes 
ineubuerint.’ ‘It is impossible to believe with 
what zeal and love of virtue this race gave itself 
to the sciences, above all, to the study of the 
sacred books, philosophy, medicine, and all the 
liberal arts.’ (‘Nicolaus Antonius’ Bibl. Hys- 
pan., pref. cf Bedarrides.) 


168 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


“To cite the illustrious names of the Spanish 
Hebrews whose intellects found their arena 
where pain was to be combatted, or disease to 
be confronted, would be a long task indeed. 

“In the tenth century the Hebrews and the 
Arabs were the leaders in medicine. (Cabanis, 
‘Revolution de la Medicine;’ Astruc ‘Histoire 
de la Faculte de Medicine de Montpellier’.) To¬ 
gether they taught at Toledo, Grenada, Cordova, 
and in schools in France, e.g ., Lunel, Beziers, 
Narbonne, Montpellier, the Hebrew found scope 
for his genius. In ‘the new home of the father 
of medicine,’ as the last place was called (As¬ 
truc), instruction was given in Hebrew. ‘The 
reputation of the Jewish physician,’says Pru- 
nelle (Discours sur l’influence de la medicine), 
‘was so great, that at one time it was asserted, 
that to be a good physician one had to be of Jew¬ 
ish extraction.’ Still greater, if possible, was 
the influence of the Jew in medicine in the rival 
school of Salerno. This school, according to an 
old tradition, was founded by four physicians, 
a Saracen, a Jew, a Greek, and a Neapolitan. 
There, also, Jewish skill again waited on royalty. 
For Charlemagne had, as he did, the Jew Farra- 
gut (VitaCaroli Magni ab autore incerto; Boissi 
dissertatione: cf Bedarrides); to the ills of 
Charles the Bald ministered the Jew Zaccharo, 



THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 169 

to the school of Salerno went William, England’s 
puissant conqueror, to court health with Hebrew 
guidance. Thus passed the Dark and Middle 
Ages. The testimony to the work of the Jew 
in medicine in these ages is very voluminous. 
Very apropos and very succinct is that afforded 
by Professor White, in the May, 1891, ‘Popular 
Science Monthly.’ He says: 

“ ‘Even to those who have become so far 
emancipated from allegiance to fetich cures as 
to consult physicians, it was forbidden to con¬ 
sult those who, as a rule, were the best. From 
a very early period in European history the 
Jews had taken the lead in medicine; their 
share in founding the great schools in Salerno 
and Montpellier we have already noted; and in 
all parts of Europe we find them acknowledged 
leaders in the healing art. The church author¬ 
ities, enforcing the spirit of the time, were es¬ 
pecially severe against these benefactors; that 
men who openly rejected the means of salvation, 
and whose souls were undeniably lost, should 
heal the elect, seemed an insult to Providence; 
preaching friars denounced them from the pul¬ 
pit, and the rulers in State and Church, while 
frequently secretly consulting them, openly 
proscribed them. Popes Eugene IV., Nicholas 
V., and Calixtus 111. especially forbade Chris- 


170 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

tians to employ them. The councils of Beziers 
and Alby in the thirteenth century, the council 
of Avignon in the fourteenth, the Synod of 
Bamberg and the Bishop of Passau in the fif¬ 
teenth, with many others, expressly forbade 
the faithful to call Jewish physicians or sur¬ 
geons under penalty of excommunication; such 
great preachers as John Geyler and John Herolt 
thundered from the pulpit against them and all 
who consulted them. As late as the middle of 
the seventeenth century, when the city council 
of Hall, in Wiirtemberg, gave some privileges to 
a Jewish physician‘on account of his admirable 
experience and skill,’ the clergy of the city 
joined in a protest, declaring that ‘it was better 
to die with Christ than to be cured by a Jew 
doctor aided by the devil.’ Still, in their ex¬ 
tremity, bishops, cardinals, kings, and even 
popes, insisted on calling in physicians of the 
hated race.’ 

“But side by side with Jewish eminence in 
medicine grew Jewish eminence in commerce. 
With this advancement, prosperity and renown 
grew Christian jealousy. Thus the thunders 
of Agobard woke ready echoes in so-called 
Christian hearts. Laws against the Jews were 
promulgated. Protests were succeeded by con¬ 
fiscations, confiscation by exile. This is the 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 171 

monstrous story of those Dark and Middle 
Ages. Nevertheless, ‘in spite of prohibitions 
of councils,’ observes Prunelle, ‘most of the 
sovereigns of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen¬ 
turies had only Jewish physicians attending 
them.’ 

“True it is, that some voices born in jealousy, 
nourished in narrow-mindedness, and fostered 
by prejudice, belittle Jewish influence in the 
healing art in this period and ascribe to the 
Arab work accomplished by the Jew. Rut here 
let me quote from Marc Borchard’s ‘Brochure 
L’hygiene Publique ches les Juifs.’ For his 
testimony, to the contrary, sufficiently indi¬ 
cates the truth in this connection: 

“ ‘After having established the preponderat¬ 
ing part played by the Jewish element in what 
has been wrongfully termed the Arabian civili¬ 
zation, I can safely say that it is the same in 
medicine.’ Such authorities as Friend, Mead, 
Huerte, Borden, Cabanis, Heusinger, had appre¬ 
ciated with impartiality the merit of Hebrew 
physicians prior to the Renaissance. But in 
these books the subject was only treated in 
passing and at great intervals; the more general 
study of medicine gives it a larger basis, in 
placing for the first time the respective posi¬ 
tions of the two nationalities in juxtaposition. 


17*2 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


“The most recent and most faithful historian 
of Spain professes a firm conviction in this re¬ 
gard. ‘Out of the preceding, we deduce,’ writes 
Professor Morejon, of the University of Madrid, 
‘first, that Arabic medicine is but the daughter 
of Jewish medicine, and that historians have 
unjustly confounded the Hebrews with the 
Arabs, in attributing to the latter the glory 
which rightly belongs to the former (que la 
medicina Arabe es hija de la Judia, y que in- 
justamente han confundido los histori adores a 
los Hebreos conlos Arabes dando a estos la 
gloria que verd aderamente perteance a 
aquellos); secondly, that the Spanish Jews, 
educated in their own schools at Zara, Cordova 
and Toledo, gave masters to Salerno, to Montpel¬ 
lier and other places, and that for over three 
centuries they deserved to be the physicians to 
kings and popes, in preference to those of other 
nationalities and religions. (Antonio Hernan¬ 
dez Morejon, ‘His. Bibliografica de la Medicinia 
Espaniola’.) We may listen to those who claim 
Avicenna or Abulcasis as Arabs. But who can 
question the race to which belonged the French¬ 
man Solomon ben Isaac, the director of such 
operations as the Caesarian section, or the many 
Spaniards such as Ebn Zohr, who taught the 
truth of marsh miasma and knew what was its 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 173 

‘evil spirit,’ Aben Tibbon, the pharmacist, 
Benvanasta, Joseph ben Abraham ben Shoshan, 
Abraham ben David Caslari, Baruch Harofe, 
R. Abraham and Rabbi Solomon aben Zarsal, 
R. Jacob Castile, Judah Abarbanel; such giants 
as Abraham aben Ezra, Nachmanides and Maim- 
onides. With the name of the last great man I 
stop. Great as he was as a commentator, phi¬ 
losopher, mathematician, astronomer, jurist and 
grammarian, his fame as physician alone would 
make him immortal. Not simply is he thus to 
be honored as a translator of Hippocrates or 
Galen; as a practitioner whose advice was sought 
by rich and poor in such numbers that he lacked 
time to tend them; or as court physician; but 
because he was imbued with that spirit of rever¬ 
ence which made him a typical Jew—grateful 
for whatever intelligence he possessed, never 
boastful, but always trusting that the One who 
alone can bless human skill with success would 
bless his humble efforts. Who can read his 
sublime prayer composed for physicians going 
to visit their patients without feeling this?” 

MAIMONIDES’ PRAYER. 

“ ‘0 God, thou hast formed the body of man 
with infinite goodness; Thou hast united in him 
innumerable forces incessantly at work like so 


174 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

many instruments, so as to preserve in its en¬ 
tirety this beautiful house containing his im¬ 
mortal soul, and these forces act with all the 
order, concord and harmony imaginable. But 
if weakness or violent passion should disturb 
this harmony, these forces would act against 
one another and the body return to the dust 
whence it came. Thou sendest then to man Thy 
messengers, the diseases which announce the 
approach of danger, and bid him prepare to 
overcome them. The Eternal Providence has 
appointed me to watch o’er the life and health 
of Thy creatures. May the love of my art 
actuate me at all times, may neither avarice, 
nor miserliness, nor the thirst for glory or a 
great reputation engage my mind; for, enemies 
of truth and philanthropy, they could easily de¬ 
ceive me and make me forgetful of my lofty 
aim of doing good to Thy children. Endow me 
with strength of heart and mind so that both 
may be always ready to serve the rich and the 
poor, the good and the wicked, friend and 
enemy, and that I may never see in the patient 
anything else but a fellow-creature in pain. 

“ ‘If physicians more learned than I wish to 
guide and counsel me, inspire me with confi¬ 
dence in, obedience toward the recognition of 
them, for the study of the science is great. It 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 175 

is not given to one alone to see all that others 
see. May I be moderate in everything except 
in the knowledge of this science; as far as it is 
concerned may I be insatiable; grant me 
strength and opportunity to always correct 
what 1 have acquired, to always extend its 
domain; for knowledge is immense and the 
spirit of man can also extend infinitely, to daily 
enrich itself with new acquirements. To-day 
he can discover his errors of yesterday and to¬ 
morrow he may obtain new light on what he 
thinks himself sure of to-day. 

“ ‘0, God, Thou hast appointed me to watch 
o’er the life and death of Thy creatures; here 
am I, ready for my vocation.’ ” 

THE LAW. 

The remarkable tendency of the Jews to a 
legal life is easily accounted for when we re¬ 
member that their chief intellectual pursuit in 
the immediate past has been connected with the 
Talmud, a work eminently legal in contents and 
tone, which, in the words of an eminent Jewish 
writer, “by the method of its study has been 
well adapted to develop a capacity for seeing 
and stating the pros and cons of any possible 
subject.” 

Turning first to Germany, we meet with 


176 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


Eduard Gans (1798-1839), the great jurist, the 
associate of Hegel, whose philosophical opinions 
he adopted. He treated the science of law ac¬ 
cording to the Hegelian philosophy. At twenty- 
two he became a doctor of law and in his works 
assailed the scientific principles of the historical 
school of jurisprudence then supported by the 
great names of Savigny and Hugo. Having be¬ 
come a nominal convert to Christianity, he was 
appointed professor extraordinary in the Uni¬ 
versity of Berlin, where his lectures drew 
crowded audiences. Edward Lasker (1839-89) 
gave to the world an erudite work on the con¬ 
stitutional history of Prussia. L. Goldschmidt 
(1829-97) was another distinguished German 
jurist. Distinguished among Dutch jurists is 
T. B. C. Asser (b. 1838). 

In France, Isaac Adolphe Cremieux (1796- 
1881) won immortal renown. I. Luzzatti 
(b. 1847) is the leading Italian jurist. J. Glaser 
(1831-85) was Austria’s greatest jurist. Francis 
Henry Goldsmid, in 1833, was the first Jew ever 
admitted to the English bar. In 1842 John 
Simon became the second Jewish barrister in 
England and the first to practice at the com¬ 
mon-law bar. And when the Jew was allowed 
to become a lawyer he still had the prejudice 
and bigotry of his neighbors to contend with. 


THE JEW IN THE SCIENCES. 177 

Though in comparatively a new field, Sir 
George Jessel, master of the rolls in England in 
1873, was recognized as one of the greatest prac¬ 
tical lawyers of the age. Judah P. Benjamin, 
after having attained eminence in the United 
States Senate, was a cabinet officer in the 
Confederate government. He resumed the 
practice of law in England, and was acknowl¬ 
edged by Sir Henry James and Sir Charles 
Russell to be the leader of the English bar at 
the time of his death. Sir G. Lewis is the 
English Choate. 

In the United States the Jews as advocates, 
jurists and writers are acknowledged by their 
Christian brethren their close competitors. And 
yet not many years ago in New York an esti¬ 
mable and accomplished gentleman was rejected 
as a member of the Bar Association, “for no 
other reason that can be conceived,” indig¬ 
nantly said one of the leading members, “ex¬ 
cept that he was a Jew.” Presumptively a man 
who is an honorable member of the Bar should 
receive the same recognition which is accorded 
to his Gentile brethren, and his honor and 
ability, regardless of his race or creed, should 
make him a fit member of the association. The 
few hostile votes, however, represented the 
very old and very universal prejudice. 















































































































































































































































































































































































































. 

















The Jew in Politics. 


It is because he is a Jew that I would urge his appointment as 
a fit recognition of this remarkable people, who are becoming 
large contributors to American prosperity, and whose intelli¬ 
gence, morality and large liberality in all public measures for 
the welfare of society deserve and should receive from the hands 
of the government some such recognition. Is it not also a duty 
to set forth in this quiet but effectual method the genius of 
American government, which has under its fostering care people 
of all civilized nations, and which treats them without regard to 
civil or religious race peculiarities as common citizens? We send 
Danes to Denmark, Germans to Germany, we reject no man be¬ 
cause he is a Frenchman. Why should we not make a crowning 
testimony to the genius of our people by sending a Hebrew to 
Turkey? The ignorance and superstition of mediaeval Europe 
may account for the prejudices of that dark age. But how a 
Christian in our day can turn from a Jew I cannot imagine. 
Christianity itself suckled at the bosom of Judaism; our roots 
are in the Old Testament. We are Jews ourselves gone to blos¬ 
som and fruit. Christianity is Judaism in evolution, and it 
would seem strange for the seed to turn against the stock on 
which it was grown.— Henry Ward Beecher, in a letter to 
President Cleveland urging Mr. Oscar Straus’s appointment as 
Minister to Turkey, 


THE JEW IN POLITICS. 


181 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE JEW IN POLITICS. 

To go no further back than the tenth century, 
we find that politics as well as literature, medi¬ 
cine and philology reached its climax among 
the Spanish Jews. They were not only ac¬ 
knowledged the greatest thinkers, but were 
nearly always men of the noblest character, 
taking an important part in governmental 
affairs. Chasdai Ben Isaac Ibn Shaprut (915- 
970) was practically minister of foreign affairs 
to his country, and took a conspicuous part in 
the embassies which were sent—the one by the 
Byzantine Emperor, Constantine VIII., the other 
by the German Emperor, Otho I.—to the court 
of Cordova. In 941 he was made the diplomatic 
agent of Abdul Rahman III. In the eleventh 
century, under King Habus of Granada, and 
under Badis his successor, Samuel Ibn Nagrela 
was for thirty years the practical ruler of the 
kingdom, living in the palace of the king. 
Under Ali in Spain several Jews were ambassa¬ 
dors. The chief diplomat and ambassador to 


182 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


various courts in the reign of Alphonso VI. of 
Castile was Amram Ibn Shalbib. Under Alphon¬ 
so VIII., Joseph Ben Salamo Ibn Shoshan was 
called prince, and stood very close to the king. 
King Alfonso Reimundez in the twelfth century 
made one Ibn Ezra commander of the fortress 
Calatravas, which he conquered, and conferred 
upon him the title of prince. In 1149 he was 
made marshal of the king’s court. Don Joseph 
de Ecijoa (Benveniste Halevi) was treasurer 
to Alphonso XI. and privy-councillor. Jechiel 
Ben Abraham was financial adviser of Pope 
Alexander III. 

In the thirteenth century Don Meir de Malea 
was treasurer to Alphonso X., and his son, Don 
Zag, succeeded him. Don Samuel Ben Meir 
Alavi, was private counsellor of Don Pedro of 
Castile, while other Jews were given high posi¬ 
tions at the court, and for the favors shown 
them Don Pedro was called a Jew by his 
enemies. 

We find that even in the fifteenth century, in 
spite of the Inquisition, Abraham Benveniste 
had great influence with Juan II. Juan de 
Pacheco, the king’s counsellor, was of Jewish 
extraction. 

The long line of Jewish statesmen in Spain 
worthily culminates in Don Isaac Abarbanel, 


THE JEW IN POLITICS. 


183 


financial adviser to Alphonso V. of Portugal. 
Ferdinand and Isabella called him to assist them 
with his financial experience. But his high 
position and commanding influence did not save 
him from becoming a martyr to his belief. 

In Portugal, King Don Ferdinand had Don 
Judah as his minister of finance and Don David 
Negro as privy-councillor. Expelled from 
Spain and Portugal, these martyrs to their an¬ 
cient faith found refuge in Italy, where in the 
sixteenth century, under the privileges accorded 
them by Alexander VI., Julius II., Leo X., Cle¬ 
ment VII., and Sixtus V., they soon obtained 
great power. 

With the settlement in the seventeenth cen¬ 
tury of the Spanish and Portuguese exiles in 
Amsterdam and Hamburg began the prosperitj r 
of those cities. Isaac Suaso, created Baron 
Avernes de Gras, advanced two million guilders 
to William of Orange when he went to England 
to seek the crown, saying: “If you succeed 
you will repay me; if not I shall lose it. ’ ’ Fran¬ 
cesco Melo assisted the State of Holland with 
his wealth, while De Pinto left several millions 
for charitable purposes, not only to Jewish in¬ 
stitutions but to the State, to Christian orphan¬ 
ages and to priests. The Texeiras and Daniel 
Abenser of Hamburg advanced money to the 


184 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


King of Poland, while Solomon de Medina, the 
London merchant, was knighted by Queen 
Anne. 

THE JEWS IN GERMANY. 

Not only do the Jews in Germany occupy the 
most important professional chairs in the Ger¬ 
man universities, not only do they possess more 
riches than their non-Jewish neighbors, driving 
the best horses and the handsomest carriages 
and inhabit the most splendid mansions, not 
only do they lead in the world of art, science 
and literature, all of which are at the bottom of 
the anti-Semitic agitation in Germany, but in 
politics they take front rank. Ferdinand Las- 
selle, the darling of the German working classes, 
jurist, economist, orator, philosopher and poet, 
made Socialism a force in European politics, 
and when he died in a duel in 1863, at the age 
of thirty-eight, Bismarck and he were con¬ 
sidered the two foremost men of the Fatherland. 

Edward Lasker, another idol of the German 
working people, was born in Jarocin, in Posen, 
Prussian Poland, October 14, 1829. He became 
known as a statesman by his work on the con¬ 
stitutional history of Prussia, and as a member 
of the Prussian Chamber, and subsequently of 
the North German and German Imperial Parlia¬ 
ments. He was one of the founders of the 


THE JEW IN POLITICS. 


185 


National Liberal Party, although on more than 
one occasion he voted with the Progressive 
party. He was a member of his political party 
just so long as it upheld justice. He was a pro¬ 
moter of the union of the Southern and Northern 
States of Germany. He was for years the ac¬ 
knowledged leader in the Reichstag. He was 
for a long time a powerful supporter of Bismarck 
until the latter’s administration introduced a 
bill which aimed to limit the freedom of speech 
in Parliament. Thenceforth Lasker became Bis¬ 
marck’s decided antagonist. In 1848 Herr J. 
Mannheimer was elected to the Presidency of 
the Austrian Diet. The famous Gabriel Riesser 
the same year was elected Minister of State to 
the Prince Protector of Germany, John of Aus¬ 
tria. Ludwig Bamberger, Max Hirsch, Anton 
Ree, Ludwig Lowe, Leopold Sonneman, Max 
Kayser, and E. Singer have fearlessly expressed 
their opinions in the German Parliament. 

Bismarck, whose nature drew its inspiration 
out of the time when “Polen, Juden und Fran- 
zosen” were a trinity of bugbears for the wor¬ 
shippers of royal rascality in Europe—yet this 
man, no friend of the Jews, in a debate in the 
Prussian Landtag during the session of 1871, 
said: 

“In my position as President of the Ministry 


186 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

I must repudiate any obligation to fill the places 
in the civil service with Roman Catholics ac¬ 
cording to their proportionate number in the 
population of the country. . . . The exist¬ 

ence of a distinctively religious body in a polit¬ 
ical assembly is in itself a monstrous phenom¬ 
enon. . . . This tends to make religion the 

subject of parliamentary debates. ... I 
adhere to the principle that every religion 
should be allowed perfect freedom, without 
considering it, for that reason, necessary that it 
should be represented in the executive depart¬ 
ments in the same ratio as in the population. 
Every religious body would have as much right 
as the Catholics to claim this: the Lutherans as 
well as the Jews, and I have found it is the lat¬ 
ter particularly who are most distinguished by 
their special intelligence and capacity for ad¬ 
ministrative functions.” 

Moses Godefroi, the Dutch advocate, in 1860 
was appointed Minister of Justice by the King 
of Holland. 

THE JEWS IN FRENCH POLITICS. 

In France, at the beginning of this century, 
Jews had already distinguished themselves in 
the army of the First Napoleon. During and 
since the reign of Louis Philippe many French 


THE JEW IN POLITICS. 187 

Jews have won fame by the exercise of their 
brilliant talents at the Bar, in the Senate, in the 
Army and also as Ministers of State. 

Isaac Adolphe Cremienx (1796-1881), whose 
eloquence and thorough legal knowledge 
soon brought him to public notice, became 
a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 
1842. He encouraged the Revolution of 1848 
and advised Louis Philippe to quit France. 
Under the Provisional Government he held 
the important office of Minister of Justice. 
After the surrender of Napoleon III. at 
Sedan, he again became Minister of Justice. 
His own donation toward the payment of the 
war debt to Germany was one hundred thou¬ 
sand francs. After serving faithfully in the 
National Assembly, the land of his birth made 
him a life-senator. 

Achille Fould (1800-67), under the Presi¬ 
dency of Louis Napoleon, was four times 
Minister of Finance. His disagreement with 
the President led him twice to retire from 
office, but he was each time reappointed. In 
1852 he was made Senator and Minister of 
State, and was created a Commander of the 
Legion of Honor. The great ultra liberal, 
Gambetta (1838-1882), was of Genoese-Jewish 
descent. David Raynal of Bordeaux became 


188 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

Senator, Minister of Public Works, and Minister 
of the Interior—the real ruler of the French Re- 
public, ninety years after the emancipation of 
the Jews. E. B. Millaud, Senator and Minister 
of Public Works; Jules Simon, Minister of Edu¬ 
cation and Religion under Thiers from February 
19, 1871 to May 24, 1873; Camille See, the suc¬ 
cessful champion of female education; Alfred 
Naquet, friend and adviser of General Boulan¬ 
ger, are a few other names of Jews who have 
distinguished themselves in French politics. 
Castelar, the foremost Republican of Spain, is 
said to have been of Jewish lineage. 

ITALY. 

It is not much more than sixty-five years 
since the Jews were permitted any liberties in 
Italy. Yet under the most adverse circum¬ 
stances Isaac Pesaro Maurogonato became “an 
athlete in parliamentary debate.” He was 
born at Venice, November 15, 1817. After hav¬ 
ing achieved great success as a lawyer he 
turned his attention to politics. In 1848 he be¬ 
came Postmaster-General of Venice, and in 1849 
Minister of Finance and Commerce. In the dis¬ 
charge of his duties in the latter office his busi¬ 
ness qualities were so conspicuously manifested 
that after the fall of the Provisional Govern- 


THE JEW IN POLITICS. 189 

ment and the return of the Austrians to Venice, 
one of the authorities, finding the office so skill¬ 
fully conducted, and every payment carefully 
accounted for, that he exclaimed: “I never 
would have thought that these Kepublican 
rebels could be so honest.” When Venice be¬ 
came a part of the kingdom of Italy in 1860, 
Maurogonato was elected a deputy to Parlia¬ 
ment, a position which he filled so agreeably 
that for many years he ranked among the life- 
senators of his native country. In this connec¬ 
tion we must mention D. Manin (1804-57), the 
Italian patriot and defender of Venice. 

Only since the establishment of the Kingdom 
under Victor Emanuel II. have Italian-born 
Jews enjoyed equal civil and political rights 
with their fellow-countrymen. Yet the people 
who were considered the lowest have by their 
talents and character with astounding rapidity 
reached the highest round in the ladder of politi¬ 
cal fame. Luzzatti is the present Minister of 
Finance, and in municipal and national affairs 
the Jews are everywhere recognized as among 
the first citizens of the kingdom. 

ENGLAND. 

The first gleam of hope for civil and religious 
liberty in England was the repeal of the Test 


190 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

and Corporation Acts in 1828. This first deci¬ 
sive move in the right direction was received 
with exultation by Roman Catholics, Christian 
dissenters and British Jews. But the clause 
“On the true faith of a Christian” appended to 
the Oath of Abjuration, a clause intended as a 
protection against any mental reservation on 
the part of Roman Catholics to jurisdiction in 
England, although not intended to affect Jews, 
Jew-baiters used this unintentional clause in 
the new declaration as a bar to the Jews’ ad¬ 
mission to Parliament, to offices under the 
crown, and all municipal and corporation offices. 
Many attempts were made to relieve the Jews 
from the political and civil disabilities from 
which they were then suffering. In 1835 David 
Salomons was elected Sheriff of London and 
Middlesex, and to enable him to serve the office 
without subscribing to the declaration “On the 
true faith of a Christian,” a bill was passed en¬ 
titled “The Sheriff’s Declaration Act.” In the 
same year Mr. Salomons was elected Alderman 
of the Ward of Aldgate, but being unable to 
take the Abjuration Oath, he could not accept 
the office, which was declared vacant and a 
Christian elected. Various emancipation bills 
were placed before Parliament, but failed to re¬ 
move the disabilities which then affected the 


THE JEW IN POLITICS. 


191 


Jews in England, so that the efforts of the 
friends of equal rights were directed toward re¬ 
moving the disabilities gradually by successive 
efforts. In 1837 Moses Montefiore was elected 
Sheriff of London and Middlesex, and received 
the honor of knighthood from Queen Victoria 
upon her first visit to London. In the same 
year David Salomons was defeated in the 
Borough of Shoreham, this being the first at¬ 
tempt of any Jew to enter Parliament. In 1844 
David Salomons was for the second time elected 
an alderman for the City of London, but was 
again prevented from accepting the office be¬ 
cause he could not subscribe to the oath which 
he was bound to take. In this same year British 
Jews were relieved from the obligation to sub¬ 
scribe to the oath, “On the faith of a true Chris, 
tian,” upon being elected to municipal offices. 
In 1846 Sir Moses Montefiore and Baron An¬ 
thony de Rothschild were made baronets of the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 
In 1847 Baron Lionel de Rothschild was sent to 
Parliament by the Liberal electors of London, 
but unable to take the oath, “On the faith of a 
true Christian,” he was not permitted to take 
his seat. The contrast between Parliament and 
the people was proven by Baron Rothschild’s 
re-election for the City of London in the years 


192 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


1849, 1852, and 1857. In 1851 Alderman Salo¬ 
mons was returned to Parliament as a member 
for Greenwich. He insisted on taking the oath 
upon the Old Testament, and omitting the 
declaration, “On the faith of a true Chris¬ 
tian,’ * concluded with “So help me God!” He 
took his seat, voted and spoke three times on 
the very question of his right to remain in the 
House, but he was compelled to withdraw. An 
action was brought against him to recover from 
him three penalties of five hundred pounds, for 
sitting and speaking three times, and voting in 
three divisions in the House of Commons without 
having taken the oath. The affair led to long 
legal proceedings before the Court of Exchequer. 
In 1855 Mr. Salomons was elected Lord Mayor 
of London, becoming not only the first Jewish 
Lord Mayor, but the first Jewish member of the 
Privy Council. Of Sir David the Times said: 
“At last we have for the first time a Lord Mayor 
who can speak the Queen’s English with pro¬ 
priety.” In 1857 Baron Lionel de Rothschild, 
having resigned his seat in the House of Com¬ 
mons, was again re-elected. The Liberal elec¬ 
tors of London were determined never to cease 
electing a Jew to Parliament until their efforts 
were crowned with having him seated. Through 
all these years bills removing the disabilities of 


THE JEW IN POLITICS. 


193 


the Jews passed the House of Commons, and 
were as regularly rejected by the House 
of Lords. In 1858 a new oaths bill, applying 
only to Jews, was carried in the House of Com¬ 
mons and referred to the House of Lords, and 
was passed with certain amendments which 
were not approved by the House of Commons. 
A conference of both Houses was consequently 
appointed, and Baron Lionel de Bothschild was 
named to serve on the committee. To the sur¬ 
prise of his brother Lords, the Earl of Lucan 
gave notice that he would introduce a bill au¬ 
thorizing either House of Parliament to admit 
Jews by resolution without the obligation to 
subscribe to the words, “On the faith of a true 
Christian.” This bill afterward passed the 
House of Lords on the 16th of July, 1858, and 
the House of Commons on the 21st of the same 
month, and on the 23d it received royal assent, 
and Baron de Rothschild took his seat in the 
House of Commons on the 26th of July. The 
year following Mr. Alderman Salomons was for 
the second time returned to Parliament and 
given his seat. In this year Benjamin Phillips 
was elected Sheriff of London and Middlesex. 
In 1860 Sir Francis Goldsmid, Bart., Q.C., was 
returned for Reading. From this time onward 
Jews became conspicuous in English politics. 


194 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


In 1864 Mr. John Simon was made a sergeant- 
at-law, he being the first Jew to receive that an¬ 
cient legal rank. In this same year Sir Benja¬ 
min Phillips was elected Lord Mayor of Lon¬ 
don, and for the creditable maimer in which he 
filled this office he received from her majesty 
the honor of knighthood on the recommenda¬ 
tion of the then Premier, the Earl of Derby. 
Since then the following distinguished men 
have served in Parliament: Sir Francis H. Gold- 
smid, Bart., Q.C., Baron Meyer de Rothschild, 
Mr. Nathaniel de Rothschild, Mr. Frederick D. 
Goldsmid, Mr. Joseph de Aguilar Samuda, Sir 
George Jessel, Q.C.; Mr. Sergeant Simon, Sir 
Nathaniel Meyer de Rothschild, Mr. Julian 
Goldsmid, Mr. Saul Isaac, Mr. Arthur Cohen, 
Q.C., Baron Henry de Worms, Mr. Sydney 
Woolf, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, and the 
Hon. Walter Lionel de Rothschild, who was re¬ 
cently elected without opposition, succeeding 
his uncle, the late Baron James de Rothschild. 

The remarkable rise of the British Jew in 
politics reached its highest point in Benjamin 
Disraeli (1805-81), Earl of Beaconsfield, Premier 
of Great Britain, and in his day one of the con¬ 
trolling powers in European affairs. The late 
Lord Herschell, Chairman of the Anglo-Ameri¬ 
can Joint High Commissioners from Great Brit- 


THE JEW IN POLITICS. 195 

ain, twice Lord High Chancellor during the 
Gladstonian ministries, and former Chancellor of 
the London University, whose death at Wash¬ 
ington, D. C., March 1, 1899, caused such pro¬ 
found sorrow, the Supreme Court of the United 
States adjourning for a day as a mark of 
respect, and who a few days before his death 
was complimented with a seat on that high 
bench—a compliment which had been extended 
only once previously, in the instance of the 
then Lord Chief Justice of England—was of 
Jewish descent. A. Faudel Phillips, the fourth 
of his faith who became Lord Mayor of London, 
and Sir Joseph Wolff Drummond, the English 
Minister to Turkey, are only a few names of 
scores of distinguished Jews in the municipal 
and national politics of England in our day. 

IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 

Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, on his with¬ 
drawal from the United States Senate, on Feb¬ 
ruary 4, 1860, was at once appointed Attorney- 
General in the Provisional Government of the 
Southern Confederacy. In the following Au¬ 
gust he was appointed Acting Secretary of W T ar; 
subsequently he became Secretary of State, 
which position he held until the downfall of the 
Southern Confederacy. Joseph Seligman de* 


196 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


dined, for personal reasons, the Secretaryship 
of the Treasury in President Grant’s cabinet. 
Isidor Straus declined the Postmaster-General¬ 
ship in President Cleveland’s cabinet. Other 
Jewish United States Senators have been David 
L. Yulee, of Florida; B. F. Jonas, from Louis¬ 
iana; and at present, Joseph Simon, of Oregon. 

JEWISH CONGKESSMEN. 

Israel Jacobs was the first Hebrew member 
of the House of Representatives from Penn¬ 
sylvania, 1791 to 1793. Michael W. Ash was 
a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, 1835 
to 1837. David S. Kauffman, after serving as 
speaker of the Texas Assembly, represented 
his State in Congress from 1847 to 1857. In 
1845 Lewis C. Levin was sent to Congress from 
Philadelphia, and was twice re-elected. Meyer 
Strouse was Congressman from Pennsylvania 
1848 to 1852, and Philip Phillips, from Alabama, 
1853 to 1855. Emanuel B. Hart of New York 
was elected to Congress in 1857; after serving 
his first term he was made Surveyor of the Port 
of New York. Henry M. Phillips of Philadel¬ 
phia, in his day one of the best constitutional 
lawyers in the country, was elected to Congress 
in 1856. Leonard Meyers of Philadelphia rep¬ 
resented the Third District from 1863 to 1875. 


THE JEW IN POLITICS. 


197 


Meyer Strouse, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, 
served in Congress from 1863 to 1867. Edwin 
Einstein, of New York City, from 1876-78, and a 
few years ago was the Republican candidate 
for Mayor of New York. Isidor Straus, one of 
New York City’s public-spirited citizens, was 
sent to Congress in 1892, declining a re-election. 
Among other Jewish Congressmen may be 
named Leopold Morse of Boston, Isidor Rayner 
of Baltimore, Nathan Frank of St. Louis, A. 
Meyer of Louisiana, and Jefferson M. Levvy of 
New York. 

JEWISH JUDGES. 

The following are some of the Hebrews who 
have held important judgeships: Moses Levy, 
whose admission to the Bar of Philadelphia dates 
as far back as March 19, 1778, after occupying 
various offices became Presiding Judge of “the 
District Court for City and County of Philadel¬ 
phia.” Mayer Isaac Franks has been men¬ 
tioned as a judge of the Supreme Court of Penn¬ 
sylvania, but the exact time when he served 
cannot be determined. Franklin J. Moses (1804- 
77) was Chief Justice of South Carolina. Solo¬ 
mon Hydenfeldt was Justice of the Supreme 
Court of California in 1851. Among the Su¬ 
preme Court Judges of New York we can recall 


198 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

Joseph E. Newburger, W. N. Cohen and David 
Levintritt. 

During the first decade of the present century 
Solomon B. Nones was Consul-General to Por¬ 
tugal. President Madison appointed Mordecai 
M. Noah Consul-General to Tunis. Colonel 
Max Einstein was appointed by President Lin¬ 
coln Consul at Nuremburg, Germany; B. F. 
Peixotto was Consul at Lyons during the ad¬ 
ministration of Presidents Hayes, Garfield and 
Arthur. Marcus Otterbourg of New York was 
the first American Hebrew to occupy the high 
office of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister 
Plenipotentiary (to Mexico). Oscar Straus was 
President Cleveland’s and now is President Mc¬ 
Kinley’s Minister to Turkey. Solomon Hirsch 
was President Harrison’s Minister to Turkey. 
Bobert Etting of Philadelphia, first captain of 
the Independent Blues in 1798, was appointed 
by President Thomas Jefferson United States 
Marshal for the State of Maryland in 1801. 
Colonel Frank Marx Etting, the historian of In¬ 
dependence Hall, a distinguished Philadelphia 
lawyer, was Director of Public Schools. Theo. 
M. Etting, a lieutenant in the United States 
navy, a successful lawyer, and distinguished as 
a writer on corporation, shipping and admiralty 
laws, was for many years a conspicuous mem- 


THE JEW IN POLITICS. 


199 


ber of the Select Council in Philadelphia, where 
on all occasions he stood up manfully for the 
people’s interests against the rascality of the 
political machine. By appointment of Presi¬ 
dent Pierce, Isaac Phillips was made General 
Appraiser of the Port of New York, a position 
which he occupied for fifteen years. B. Gold¬ 
smith and Philip Wasserman have been Mayors 
of Portland, Oregon. Colonel Louis Fleischner 
and Edward Hirsch have been State Treasurers 
of Oregon. Edward Kanter has been State Treas¬ 
urer of Michigan. George W. Ochs, President of 
the Southern Publishers’ Association, Mayor of 
Chattanooga, Tennessee; Raphael J. Moses and 
Judge Max Meyerhardt of Georgia; Judge Klein 
of Mississippi; Herman Meyers, for years Mayor 
of Savannah; H. M. Hyams, former Lieutenant- 
Governor of Louisiana; Morris Cohen, of Ar¬ 
kansas, whose “Introduction to the Study of 
the Constitution” forms part of the historical 
publications of Johns Hopkins University; 
Simon Wolf appointed by President Grant, 
Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia; 
S. W. Rosendale, formerly Attorney-General of 
New York; Simon Sterne, Jacob A. Cantor, 
Julius Harburger, the Seligmans, Theo. W. 
Myers, formerly Comptroller of the City of New 
York, and Nathan Straus, whose varied and mul- 


200 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


tiplied labors in the noble cause of humanity- 
have made his name a household word among 
the poor of New York, and who declined the 
Democratic nomination for mayor of New York 
City, these are only a few of hundreds of Jews 
who might be named in every section of our 
country, whose courageous and persistent ad¬ 
vocacy of righteousness in politics have made 
the Jew a mighty power for good in municipal, 
State and national life. 


The Jew in Finance. 


The Jew is accused of love of money, but it is forgotten that 
all other means of distinction are denied him, that he must rise 
by wealth or not rise at all, and if, as he well knows, to insure 
wealth be to insure rank, respect, and attention in society, does 
the blame rest with him who endeavors to acquire wealth for the 
distinction which it will purchase, or with that society which so 
readily bows down at the shrine of Mammon ? It is not pre¬ 
tended that the Jew is a miser, that he desires to acquire wealth 
merely from the loathsome gratification of hoarding it. . . . 

The Jewish merchant is generally profuse in his expenditure, he 
has labored to gain riches on account of the respect which they 
will procure for him, and he is proud of expending them with the 
same view.— Dr. Barnard Van Oven —a once famous Anglo- 
Jewish physician—in his appeal to the British nation on behalf 
of the Jews (1831). 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 


203 


CHAPTER IX. 

THE JEW IN FINANCE. 

In finance the Jew has for four hundred years 
been the factor that supplied the nations of the 
earth with money. The financial system of the 
world, its invention and perfection,we owe to the 
Rothschilds—who were the first to make national 
loans popular. The Jew in finance is almost 
invariably a creator and not a puller-down. 
Most of the great fortunes which have been 
made, notably in America, have been made by 
wrecking railroads and other established and 
incorporated industries. The Jews with com¬ 
paratively few exceptions made their money as 
manufacturers and merchants. Poliakoff, the 
Russian railway king, the Pereires, the French 
railroad kings, and the Rothschilds* are 
among the few exceptions. Capital and Jew 

* Mayer Anselm (Bower) Rothschild, the founder of the 
wealthiest family in modern times, was born in Frankfort in 1743 
and died there in 1812. He belonged to a poor Jewish family 
and was a clerk in Hanover before establishing himself at Frank¬ 
fort where he started as a money lender under the “Red Shield” 
(Rothschild). Hence the name. Here his integrity and ability 



204 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

are not synonymous terms—the leading spirits 
of the antagonistic forces—capital and labor— 
are Jews, there are financiers like the Roth- 
schilds and there are socialistic Jews like Las- 
selle, Marx and Singer, the latter the head of 
the Socialist party in the German Reichstag. 
The capitalists cannot curse the Jews, and the 
Socialists cannot dynamite the Jews without 
abandoning their very leaders. 

Because some Jews are rich, all Jews are con¬ 
sidered so, and has given rise to the proverb 
“Rich as a Jew.” One of the causes of this 
idea has been that the Jewish poor have never 
been a burden to the general population, but 
have been entirely supported by the Jews them¬ 
selves. The Jews are in fact the poorest of all 
people that can claim to be civilized. If their 
wealth were capitalized and equally distributed 
among the Jews, they would dispute with Ire- 


brought him into relations with the German government during 
the wars of Napoleon. 

The elector William, on his flight in 1806, after the invasion of 
his states by the French, intrusted about $5,000,000 to Rothschild 
for eight years, and the judicious investment of this capital was 
the foundation of his fortune, and so faithfully was this trust 
administered that when William was restored to power Roths¬ 
child returned the value of the property with interest. Remem¬ 
ber that the success of the Rothschilds had its origin in the 
honorable fulfillment of a great trust, and under circumstances 
when the violation of the trust would have been beyond legal 
redress. 



THE JEW IN FINANCE. 


205 


land and Russia for the lowest place in the scale 
of wealth. 

The six hundred thousand Jews living in 
Africa and Asia are poor. The four and one- 
half millions who live in the east of Europe are 
only just raised above pauperism, while a goodly 
proportion are sunk below even that level. 
Among the four millions of Russian Jews only 
three names, Gunzburg, Poliakoff and Brodsky, 
rise above the general level of hard-work¬ 
ing poverty. On the Continent beside the 
Rothschilds, are the names of Bischoffsheim, 
Bleichroder, Hirsch, Konigswarter, Oppenheim, 
Pereire, Reinach, Stern, Springer, Todesco and 
Warschauer. Among the more than twelve 
hundred millionaires of New York City there 
cannot be found more than a dozen Jewish 
names, and not over twenty-five among the four 
thousand millionaires in the country at large. 
Surely this is a small proportion for so great a 
population. 

Originally the Jews were an agricultural 
people, and their civil polity was framed spe¬ 
cially for this state of things. The sons of 
Shem built their first cities remote from the 
channels of trade, while the race of Ham and 
Japhet built upon the seashore and the banks 
of great rivers. But the persecution of the He- 


206 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


brews necessarily made them merchants. De¬ 
nied citizenship, subject at any time to spoliation 
and expulsion, their only possible chance of liv¬ 
ing was in traffic, in which they soon became 
skilled. They naturally followed the channels of 
commerce the world over—Gentile persecution 
kept them on the go—and to protect their prop¬ 
erty against Gentile thieves, their wealth had to 
be portable. They therefore frequently turned 
it into jewels because they could be most securely 
and most secretly kept, and in case of flight 
most easily removed—this accounts for their 
prominence in the jewelry business from early 
times, and hence too, their introduction of bills 
of exchange. 

Prevented in many countries from holding 
land, they had no inducement to settle in the 
country. Besides their religious enactments 
(Mishna, Megilla I. 3,4) only permit the sacred 
functions of public worship to be performed in 
the presence of ten males above the age of thir¬ 
teen, the minimum for a congregation; this re¬ 
quires that at least forty souls shall dwell with¬ 
in accessible distance. This consideration 
explains the fact that so few Jews dwell in 
small villages. That the Jews tend toward 
large towns is not peculiar to them—it is a con¬ 
stant feature of modern statistics. 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 


207 


THE JEWS AS PIONEERS IN INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS. 

It would take volumes to tell the Jews’ part 
in building up the world’s commerce. In 
Johannesburg, South African Republic, Rabbi 
Joseph H. Hertz recently said: “As for his in¬ 
dustrial conquests, it is not easy to exaggerate 
the share in the awakening of this continent 
which is due to the enterprise, the commercial 
instinct, the dash and daring of the South Afri¬ 
can Jew. For, the current belief to the con¬ 
trary notwithstanding, Jewish immigration did 
not wait for the discovery of the diamond fields 
and gold fields. Jews began to come over in the 
twenties; and before Kimberley was, Jewish 
congregations were scattered over this sub-con¬ 
tinent. And there is not a town in the interior 
but owes to the Jews its foundation or its early 
establishment as a trading and commercial 
center. The halo of romance shines over the 
whole story. From Bethulie to Bulwayo, from 
the Pearl to Pretoria, you will everywhere find 
the Jew the pioneer of industrial progress. Just 
as the Jew started the tobacco trade in Cuba, 
the sugar industry in Barbadoes, the vanilla 
trade in Jamaica to say nothing of older coun¬ 
tries, we find that ever so many South African 
industries were started and developed by Jews. 


208 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


The most useful work, Zangwill truly remarks, 
which Israel has recently been doing, is the un¬ 
noted form of colonization. The Jew is every¬ 
where pioneering and building up States. And 
say what you wi]l, commerce and diffusion of 
civilization are most closely allied. The time 
will come when the services of a De Pass to the 
whaling, sealing, and guano industries; of An¬ 
drade in establishing the ostrich feather indus¬ 
try ; of Mosenthal in establishing the wool and 
hide trades; and of dozens of others, the “town- 
builders/’ the pioners of Griqualand, Matabele- 
land, and Mashonaland, will be honored no less 
than their fellow-Jews, Captain Joshua Norden, 
shot at the head of his troops by the Kaffirs in 
’47, and Lieutenant Elias de Pass, who so gal¬ 
lantly fought in the Kaffir war of ’49.” 

Dr. K. Kohler, writing in The Menorah , on 
“Commerce and Civilization,” points the social¬ 
ist to the danger of overdrawing the estimate of 
manual labor. The worker must have behind 
him the man of commerce. The brains that 
plan, and the pluck that opens new fields of in¬ 
dustry are certainly indispensable factors in a 
progressive life. Commerce is the prime motor 
of culture and civilization. 

“The trader who first breaks into hostile 
camps of savages, offering them some curious 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 


209 


stuff or toy for sale which caters to their vanity 
or passion, may, for all we know, as a mean 
and selfish intruder, rudely disturb them from 
their wonted ease and peace. Who knows but 
they lived in communism, contented with what 
their land yielded to them? Yet as he rouses 
the lazy, inert masses from their dullness by the 
very craving and want he excites in them, he 
casts a fermenting element into their stage of 
life, and like after eating the forbidden fruit in 
Paradise, other cravings and wants are sure to 
follow, until from the bare necessities of exist¬ 
ence they will be lured on to more commodious 
ways of living, and finally, while a few lead and 
others follow, they will be drawn into closer 
contact with culture, and as new branches of 
humanity be linked with ever stronger ties to 
the world’s march of civilization. Thus invol¬ 
untarily the simple-minded peddler turns out to 
be the first pioneer of civilization, and as he 
afterward settles down equipped with larger 
means than the rest, his very wealth becomes, 
like the mountainous region of the country, a 
reservoir of blessing, sending forth its streams 
or brooklets near and far to fertilize the land! 
You may as well ask why did God not flatten 
all lands down to one level as wonder why 
wealth should accumulate in the hand of the 


210 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW 


one, and poverty fall to the lot of the other. It 
is just the elevated position, the better situation 
of the few which excites the ambition and ac¬ 
tivity of the many. Glance over the pages of 
history, and you will find commerce to be the 
mighty power which carries on its wings, in its 
very arms, all that makes humanity great, wise, 
and good. Art, literature, science, industry, 
and even religion, enter the land in its wake. 
Is it not remarkable that the invention of the 
very key of knowledge, the letters and the pro¬ 
pagation of the first rudiments of art, mankind 
owes to the first great trading people, the Phoe¬ 
nicians? And what were those men who gave 
us a Homer, a Phidias and an Aristotle, the 
everlasting models and masters of art, philoso¬ 
phy, and science, but the successors and heirs to 
Phoenician trade and traffic? What lent that won¬ 
drous charm and splendor to the cities of Bagdad 
and Cordova, to that brilliant civilization of the 
Moor, if not a commerce extending from Spain 
to far-off China? Commerce as inherited from 
Moorish Spain made Italy the mother and 
cradle of all the modern arts and sciences, gave 
it a Raphael, a Michael Angelo, and a Pales¬ 
trina, the father of music. Follow all the tides 
of modern civilization, and you will see the 
prosperous condition of commerce mark the 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 


211 


high water all along until you reach Great Bri¬ 
tain, ruling the world with her industry, and 
now America is soon to outshine her proud 
mother. Commerce, in sending first its drome¬ 
daries through inaccessible deserts and its ships 
over wide seas, not only enlarged the horizon of 
and man, exploring and interlinking distant lands 
and continents, but extended its gigantic network 
of iron and electric wire all around the globe 
and better than religion has thus far been able 
to do, has knit humanity together in one common 
bond of sympathy and interest. 

Commerce did for humanity what religion 
failed to do—it broadened it. How often in¬ 
terests of commerce outweigh the sentiments of 
sectarian bigotry and race hatred! Commerce 
has been an apostle of peace and a civilizer of 
humanity. It was their commercial contact 
with the seafaring Phoenicians which broad¬ 
ened the Jew and widened him into a cosmopol¬ 
itan. Jewish commerce centered around 
Alexandria, Damascus, and Antioch, spread 
over the Mediterranean Sea, opened the gate for 
Christianity to enter the pagan world as con¬ 
queror. The flourishing trade of the Jews, 
which made Spain the focus of Mediseval cul¬ 
ture, furnished not only the great discoverers 
with the key to unlock the new worlds with 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


212 

their inexhaustible treasures, but exercised its 
influence in entire Christianity. “Jewish com¬ 
merce,” says Lecky in his “History of Rational¬ 
ism,” “liberated mankind from the thraldom of 
the church, giving the world the much-needed 
lesson of sound practical common sense.” 

“Need the Jews, then, be ashamed of their 
specific commercial proclivities which oppres¬ 
sion and persecution ingrained into their very 
nature? They have helped to rear almost all 
the great metropolitan centers of commerce 
from Paris, London and Cologne to Nuremberg, 
Augsburg and Kiev, for the rich burghers to 
take possession of them as soon as their former 
owners had been driven away. Compare only 
the Spain before with the Spain after the expul¬ 
sion of the Jews, compare Ireland and Sweden, 
where scarcely any Jews lived, with Holland, 
whose trade and banking system was estab¬ 
lished by Jews. Need our American fellow-citi¬ 
zens feel any‘apprehension’ because Broadway 
is lined with Jewish firms, showing Jewish en¬ 
terprise successfully competing with that of the 
shrewdest Yankee?” 

JEWS AND WORK. 

To the charge, “the Jew is not a producer, 
he is merely a consumer, or only a middle- 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 313 

man, Rabbi F. de Sola Mendes makes this 
spirited reply: “Consumers play a quite indis¬ 
pensable role in the drama of world-economy. 
If there were no consumers, men would not pro¬ 
duce: to what end should they? To be a con¬ 
sumer is to play a very important part in the 
world; he must first earn the wherewithal to 
consume, for nothing for nothing” is the stern 
law of social economy; and secondly, the pro¬ 
ducer cannot well get along for any length of 
time without him. 

“That he should be a ‘middleman’ is also 
quite considerably to his credit, this poor, 
much-judged Jew. Men cannot eat their own 
manufactures as a general thing—steam engines, 
shovels, linens and woolens, muslin, boots, and 
gloves, useful as they are in their way, are fail¬ 
ures as articles of diet. He who takes these 
inedible things and by disposing of them into a 
common medium returns that to the producers 
thereof for which they in turn can purchase 
what they can consume, is no less an important 
cogwheel in the machinery of society than the 
railroad or the canal, which takes the wheat or 
the cotton, the coal or the iron ore, from regions 
where it cannot be worked up into shape, and 
places them there where the manufactory or the 
consumer awaits them. Censure for being a 


214 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

middleman is censure which must fall equally 
upon the vast guild of merhants, all over the 
world, of every species, race, creed, and degree. 

“But how about the statement, so often made, 
that the Jew is never seen to work hard? We 
do not, it is true, see a Jew among the swarthy, 
able-bodied, but decidedly unpleasant gangs of 
workmen—laborers they are called—who sweep 
the streets, blast the rocks or dig and cart the 
dirt for cellars and basements. This simply, 
because their brains befit them for occupations 
not quite at the lowest round of the labor-lad¬ 
der. What American or Celt or German, having 
the ability to square a post, saw an angle or 
frame a joint true and solid, will be content to 
be anything else than a carpenter, earning his 
four dollars a day, where the cellar-digger earns 
two dollars? Or if able to use the plumb-line 
and get his bricks nicely and truly laid, would 
you expect the Irish bricklayer to change places 
and wages with him who has just enough ability 
to mount a ladder with sixteen bricks in his 
hod, without spilling and breaking more than a 
dozen a day? Then why is the Jew who has 
the ability to take positions for which the world 
is willing to pay at the highest rate which in¬ 
telligence and skill command, to be scored, be¬ 
cause he sells his services in the market where 
the highest prices are paid?” 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 


215 


SHYLOCK NOT A JEW. 

Shylock, the Jew, is undoubtedly one of 
Shakespeare’s most masterly dramatic crea¬ 
tions. The fancy portrait of the Venetian Jew, 
which has cast upon the Jewish race, a foul 
and enduring slander, in his inhuman desire to 
wreak upon his implacable enemy, his “lodged 
hate,” by cutting from his body a pound of flesh 
in accordance with the terms of the bond, has 
no warrant in reality and no sanction in Jewish 
laws, which strictly enjoin the practice of for¬ 
bearance, mercy and charity in their widest sense 
to all men. Jews were little if at all known in 
England for about three hundred years when the 
Merchant of Venice was written. Many slan¬ 
derous stories relating to the Jews who had 
been banished from the country in 1290, were 
undoubtedly extant in Shakespeare’s time, 
stories which grow by telling, as a snowball does 
by rolling, and which prepared playgoers to be¬ 
lieve Jews capable of violating all at once every 
commandment in the Sacred Ten. Thus the 
character of Shylock was at once welcomed as 
a true representation of that “mysterious peo¬ 
ple,” whom they had been taught to hate. 

Where did Shakespeare get his plot for this 
drama? The first story of the pound of flesh 


*16 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


we find in ancient Hindoo mythology. Thence 
it must have traveled westward and with the 
hatred borne toward the Jew, was brought into 
connection with his relations to the Christian. 
Many thoughtless persons are in the habit of 
making foolish wagers, as “I would bet my 
life,” and so on, and it appears to have been an 
ancient custom in Italy to use the expression 
“Scometto unalibra di care del mio corpo;” “1 
wager you a pound of flesh from my body,” 
with no intention of literally forfeiting a pound 
of flesh. The following and only historical 
foundation of the pound of flesh reverses the 
position of the Jew and Christian. 

In his life of Pope Sixtus V., Gregorio Letti, 
the biographer, records the following episode: 
In 1587, Paul Mario Secchi, a merchant of Kome, 
gained the information that Sir Francis Drake, 
the English admiral, had conquered San Domin¬ 
go. He communicated this piece of news to 
Samson Cenado, a Jewish merchant, to whom it 
appeared incredible, and he said: “I bet a 
pound of flesh that it is untrue.” 

“And I lay one thousand scudi against it,” 
replied Secchi. A bond was drawn up to that 
effect. After a few days, news arrived of 
Drake’s achievement, and the Christian insisted 
on the fulfillment of the bond. In vain the Jew 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 


217 


pleaded, but Secchi swore that nothing could 
satisfy him but a pound of the Jew’s flesh. In 
his extremity the Jew went to the governor. 
The governor of the city promised his assist¬ 
ance, communicated the case to Pope Sixtus V., 
who condemned both to the galleys—the Jew 
for making such a wager, the Christian for ac¬ 
cepting it. They released themselves from im¬ 
prisonment by each paying a fine of two thou¬ 
sand scudi toward the hospital of the Sixtus 
Bridge, which the Pope was then rebuilding. 

William Cullen Bryant on the occasion of 
Edwin Booth’s presentation of Shylock, wrote: 

“In terming Shylock ‘the Jew whom Shakes¬ 
peare drew,’ there is a perfect logic, for Shy¬ 
lock is, of all Shakespeare’s characters, the 
only one untrue to nature. He is not a Jew, 
but a fiend presented in the form of one; and 
whereas he is made a ruling type, he is but an 
exception, if even that, and the exception is not 
to be met with either in the Ghettos of Venice 
or Rome. Shakespeare holds up the love of 
money that marks the race, although he does 
not show that this passion was but the effect of 
that persecution which, by crowding the Jew 
out of every honorable pursuit, and thus cutting 
off his nature from every sympathy with the 
world around, sharpened and edged the keen 


218 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

corners of his brain for the only pursuit left to 
him. 

“It is true that money-changers, once spat on 
in the Ghetto, are now hugged in the palace. 
But we fear it is not that the prejudice against 
the Jews has ceased, but that the love of money 
among the Christians has increased. Shakes¬ 
peare was not true in the picture he has drawn 
of the Jew’s cravings for revenge, and in the 
contempt with which he is treated by his daugh¬ 
ter. Revenge is not a characteristic of the Jew. 
He is subject to sudden fits of passion, but that 
intellect which always stands sentinel over the 
Hebrew soon subdues the gust. However 
strong in Shylock’s time might have been the 
hatred of the Jew toward the Christian, the lust 
of lucre was more strong, and Shakespeare 
might have ransacked every Ghetto in Christen¬ 
dom without finding a Jew, or a Christian 
either, who would have preferred a pound of 
flesh to a pound sterling, and Jews also shrink 
from physical contests. Their disposition is to 
triumph by intellect rather than violence. It 
was this trait more than any other that ren¬ 
dered them, in the Middle Ages, so repulsive 
to the masses, who were all of the Morrisse}^ 
and muscular Christianity school. The con¬ 
tempt of a daughter for her parent is equally 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 219 

uncharacteristic of the Jew. The Jews are uni¬ 
versally admired for the affections which adorn 
their domestic life. The more they have been 
pushed from the society of the family of man 
the greater has been the intensity with which 
they have clung to the love of their family. 

“No one can ever have visited the houses of 
the Jews without having been struck by the 
glowing affection with which the daughter 
greets the father as he returns from the day’s 
campaign and the slights and sneers his gaber¬ 
dine and yellow cap provoke, and without ob¬ 
serving how those small, restless eyes that 
sparkle and gleam, shine out in a softened, lov¬ 
ing luster as they fall upon the face of Rebecca 
or Jessica, or Sarah, and how he stands no 
longer with crooked back, but erect and com¬ 
manding, as he blesses his household goods 
with exultations vehement as the prejudices 
which during the day have galled and fretted 
his nature. To do justice to the grandeurs of 
the Jewish race, and to brand with infamy its 
infirmities, it is not enough to produce a repul¬ 
sive delineation of the latter. It would be only 
just to give an expression to the former, and to 
exhibit that superiority of intellect which has 
survived all persecution, and which, soaring 
above prejudices of the hour, has filled us with 


220 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

reluctant admiration on finding how many of 
the great events which mark the progress of the 
age or minister to its improvements, or elevate 
its tastes, may be traced to the wonderful work¬ 
ings of the soul of the Hebrew, and the suprem¬ 
acy of that spiritual nature which gave man¬ 
kind its noblest religion, its noblest laws, and 
some of its noblest poesy and music.” 

With Robert Benedix, the German critic: 

“Let us look at this Shylock closer. Antonio 
calls him an usurer; the proof he fails in. Shy- 
lock takes high interest; so did all the mer¬ 
chants of Venice. Shylock deals in money; 
to-day we call him a banker. Why does he 
deal in money? Because it is the only trade 
permitted. He does not carry on an industry, 
has no agricultural pursuits, no official station 
—only trade. If the Jews, under centuries of 
restriction, ostracised from social life, did cling 
to money and its uses, whose fault was it? No 
one can say anything dishonorable of Shylock. 
He is penurious; in no law book of the world is 
that dominated as a crime. What is against 
this man? Simply nothing more than that he 
is a Jew. But for the poet, who, enthroned on 
Olympian height, there should only exist the 
man, not the Jew. Shylock is revengeful. 
Well who has instigated it? Only they who 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 221 

have despised him. After persecuting and de¬ 
riding him, they crown their infamy by asking 
him to turn Christian. That is the very depth 
of baseness. What is left the poor Jew, whom 
you have trodden under foot, when you rob him 
of his faith? It is the bond that binds him to 
his fathers, to his home. It has been his solace 
in persecutions a thousand times repeated. To 
this faith Israel clings with devoted love, and 
from this faith shall Shylock turn to become a 
Christian? No wonder he turns with abhor¬ 
rence from those who torture him so cruelly. 
Christians they may be. Men they are not. 
And is there no feeling for a father? To exalt 
a daughter who absconds and robs him whom 
she should honor? Is that Jewish or Christian? 
The grand speech, ‘Has not a Jew eyes,’ etc., 
is the exclamation of a martyr people who for 
centuries had been the victims of debauched, 
bigoted priests. 

“It is impossible to acquit Shakespeare of the 
prejudice of his age. He has morally sinned; 
artistically erred. Contrast Lessing, he who 
wrote in an age of equal intolerance. His 
‘Nathan the Wise’is an embodiment of morality 
and sublime virtues; his figures are apostles of 
true humanity. Nathan is an evangelist of true 
worth; and Lessing, taking for his hero a Jew, 


222 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


made thereby the amende honorable in the name 
of humanity.” 

Terence Y. Powderly, long the great leader 
of the Knights of Labor, wrote: 

‘‘Flings at the Jews are flying about promis¬ 
cuously on every hand, and it seems to me that 
this practice is neither just nor manly. Turn 
the pages of history backward to the dawn of 
Christianity and notice how the Jew has been 
persecuted by those who professed to be actu¬ 
ated by Christian charity. Notice how he has 
been driven from country and home, how he 
has been driven ahead of the advanced guard of 
Christianity, and then pause for a moment to 
ask if the Christian is not in some small meas¬ 
ure to blame for the money-lending character¬ 
istics of the Jew of this day and generation. 
Driven from all other branches of trade, with a 
price on his head, and his home at the mercy of 
others, how could the Jew protect himself? It 
is well enough to single out Kothschild and to 
point to him as a fit representative of an usury- 
taking class, but when he is pointed to as ‘Koths¬ 
child the Jew,’ the bounds of propriety are 
overstepped and common justice is violated. 

“What right has a Christian to drive a man 
from every walk in life but that of money-lend¬ 
ing and then insult his race and religion be- 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 


223 


cause of that fact, in sneeringly calling him a 
Jew. It is proper to call a money-lender a 
‘Shylock,’ for that is a term that is applicable 
to men of all races and religions if they practice 
usury, but to single out the Jew as the only one 
who should wear that appellation is an outrage. 
I know Christians, and the reader knows them, 
who on every Sunday morning will walk slowly 
down the middle aisle in the Christian church, 
and with sanctimonious mien bend the knee be¬ 
fore the altar of God with no more Christianity 
in their hearts than may be found in the stone- 
steps leading up to the church door. If a living 
representative of ‘Shylock’ is to be singled out, 
one whose talon-like fingers itch for usury and 
stretch out toward your pocket for the principal 
as well, let us be honest enough to admit that 
we can throw a stone into any of our temples of 
Christianity and hit a sinner. Do not lay it to 
the Jew. I admit that he knows how to deal in 
money, but who gave him points in the game of 
usury? Look over the United States to-day. 
Contrast the acts of pretended Christians with 
the principles of Christ, and then dare to lay 
the blame of all the wrong that usury has 
wrought to the door of the Jew. Look at our 
American Congress and tell us if those who 
obey the voice of greed in that body are all 


224 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

Jews. . . . Are all who have cornered 

lands, railroads and homes Jews? Let the 
reader whose home is mortgaged inquire 
who it is holds the mortgage, and if it happens 
to be a Christian, as nine cases out of ten he 
will be, ask him to be lenient with you, and you 
will learn that he wants his pound of flesh and 
will be anxious to go old Shy lock one better, by 
sucking the blood along with it.” 

USURY NOT A JEWISH CHARACTERISTIC. 

Usury has been a common practice among 
every nation as far back as history bears record. 
The discoveries of Egyptian papyri made some 
years ago at Thebes have disclosed the fact that 
the Egyptian priests, chiefly the priests of 
Osiris, were engaged in lending and borrowing 
money, and that they practiced usury in its 
severest form—fifty per cent, being the usual 
amount charged, and security debtors were 
sometimes obliged to mortgage all they pos¬ 
sessed. The loans were invariably contracted 
for short periods, payment was punctually en¬ 
forced, a creditor would accept no instalment 
before the day fixed for repayment, nor would 
the priests and scribes permit even the delay 
of a few hours. 

Among the ancient Greeks we find usury in 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 


225 


its most infamous aspect, as the following cita¬ 
tions from Mitford’s “History of Greece” show: 
“Everywhere the laws gave the lender certain 
rights over the person of the borrower. Thus 
the wealthy to the power always attending 
poverty added a power not originally intended 
by the constitution, yet derived from the laws, 
and confirmed by them. At Athens an insolent 
debtor became a slave to his creditor, and not 
himself only, but his wife and children also, if 
less would not answer the debt. Sometimes a 
debtor would sell his children to save himself.” 
So universally and cruelly was usury practiced 
among the ancient Romans that a law was 
passed to mitigate its severity. According to 
Livy, Roman usurers were restrained by new 
laws from keeping their debtors in irons or in 
bounds, only goods and not the persons of 
debtors could be given up to creditors. Cato, 
Seneca and Plutarch in their unsparing denun¬ 
ciations of unreasonable demands for interest 
on money, give undeniable proof of the shame¬ 
less prevalence of usury among the nations of 
antiquity. 

Of the usury practiced throughout the Middle 
Ages Hallam tells us that “at Verona it was 
fixed by law in 1228 at twelve and one-half per 
cent. In 1270, at Modena, it appears to have 


226 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

been as high as twenty per cent. The Republic 
of Genoa, toward the end of the fourteenth cen¬ 
tury, when Italy had grown wealthy, paid only 
from seven to ten per cent, to her creditors. 
But in France and England the rate was far 
more oppressive. An ordinance of Philip the 
Fair, in 1311, allowed twenty per cent, after the 
first year of loan. Under Henry III. of Eng¬ 
land, according to Matthew Paris, the debtor 
paid ten per cent, every two months; but this 
as a practice is supposed to be absolutely 
incredible. 

Usury was practiced by some Jews, but it is 
not a Jewish any more than it is a Christian 
characteristic. Usurious Jews there were dur¬ 
ing the Middle Ages, the greater part of the 
wealth, as well as the ordinary inland trade 
throughout Italy, France, Spain, Greece and 
Portugal was in the hands of the Jewish people. 
It is not surprising that Jews should have 
availed themselves of favorable opportunities to 
add to their store, by claiming as did their 
Christian neighbors those high rates of interest 
for the loan of money to which historians refer, 
and more especially since to cultivate the soil, 
to practice any art, even to trade, or hold real 
estate was forbidden them in many countries, 
and their wealth was in ready money, and held 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 


227 


under the precarious conditions dependent upon 
the caprice of tyranical rulers. That Jewish 
usurers were not as grinding as their Christian 
neighbors who pursued the same occupation is 
plainly evident from the historical fact that 
when by law it was forbidden the Jews in France 
to exact usury, that the law was soon repealed 
in response to the people’s demand and the 
nobles’ advice, because the Christian usurers to 
whom they had then to resort were so exorbi¬ 
tant in their demands that the Jews were con¬ 
sidered very kind by comparison. Leckey tells 
us that at this time all drawing of interest on 
capital lent was called usury. Bernhard of 
Clairvaux, in the twelfth century, tells us that 
Christian usurers, who, as he says should really 
not be called Christians, were in their practices 
much worse than the Jews. 

The poets in their songs and the preachers in 
their sermons refer to this terrible vice as 
common among Christians during the Middle 
Ages. 

Why then should the Jews be singled out and 
painted as cruel, hard-hearted, revengeful mon¬ 
sters for the same avaricious practices in which 
their Christian brethren at least equalled them 
if they did not go them a few points worse. 
Is it religious bigotry and race hatred that 


328 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

makes the distinction which history certainly 
fails to make? 

The Jews of the Middle Ages who were the 
sole possessors of the wealth as they were also 
of learning, were always, by the exigencies of 
the savage and rapacious princes, subjected to 
frightful extortions. In 1210 the detestable 
King John withdrew the privileges accorded the 
Jews to induce them to settle in England, and 
imprisoned all the Jews and their families who 
did not heed his command to pay all their 
money into his exchequer. 

In the year 1241, and in 1243, the Christian 
authorities again forced the Jews to submit to 
extravagant extortions. These extortions were 
repeated in 1250, and once more in 1255. When 
the rapacious Henry III. went so far as to 
demand the money of the Jews—with the 
alternative of their being all hanged, they peti¬ 
tioned the brutal monarch to allow them to 
depart, but the bankrupt king bade them stay, 
and as he needed money to supply his son 
Prince Edward, he forced the Jews to remain and 
robbed them as his financial exigencies required. 

Interest had now reached to a great height. 
Hume cites instances of fifty per cent, being 
paid. Money-lenders were permitted legally to 
accept as high as forty-eight per cent, on loans. 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 


229 


Little need we wonder, when we remember how 
strong the love of gain reigns in our own hearts, 
that the Jews braved the prejudice like others 
of the age, and remained in England to benefit 
by the high profits which were then given for 
the use of money. 

When in 1290 King Edward could extort no 
more gold from them he banished them from 
England. The practice of usury, Hume tells us, 
“was thenceforth exercised by the English 
themselves, upon their fellow-citizens, or by the 
Lombards (not Jews), as it was impossible for a 
nation to subsist without lenders of money, 
and none would lend without compensation 

“It is very much to be questioned whether 
the dealings of the new usurers were equally 
open and unexceptionable with those of the old.” 
Usury in those times was not peculiar to the 
Jews. Dr. Tovey says (Anglia Judaica ): 

“The Pope was wont to carry on that infa¬ 
mous trade in such a shameful manner, by the 
help of several Italian merchants called Caur- 
sini, that the Jews themselves might have 
profited by his example. For though, accord¬ 
ing to the strict and legal acceptation of the 
word, his contracts were not ‘usurious,’ yet the 
effects of them were the most unheard of usury. 
His method was this: if a person wanted a sum 


230 JUSTICE ro THE JEW. 

of money which he would not repay under six 
months, he would lend ifc to him for three 
months without any interest at all; and then 
covenant to receive five per cent, for every 
month afterward that it should remain unpaid. 
‘Now in this case,’ said he, ‘I am no usurer, for 
I lent my money absolutely without interest, 
and what I was to receive afterward was a con¬ 
tingency that might be defeated.’ A bond of 
this kind, which surpasses everything of mod¬ 
ern invention, is transmitted by Matthew Paris, 
who says, “when the Jews came to understand 
the Christian way of preventing usury they 
laughed very heartily.” 

The royal spendthrifts and their impecunious 
subjects borrowed from the industrious and 
provident Jews. But when the time came to 
pay they raised the cry against “the crime of 
usury,’’ and the indolent Christian borrowers, 
the Castilian nobles (?) plundered and murdered 
the Jewish money-lenders and thus avenged the 
crime of usury and cancelled their debts. 

The most infamously notorious usurers of 
which history tells were the Lombards, Aud- 
ley, Pepoli and the Caursini, not Jews. Writing 
in the reign of Elizabeth, Bacon says of usury: 
“Since there must be borrowing and lending, 
and men are so hard of heart that they will not 


THE JEW IN FINANCE. 


231 


lend freely, usury must be permitted. Only a 
Utopian government would attempt to suppress 
usury.” Usury could only be practiced by 
Christians, as Jews were not then tolerated in 
England. 









The Jew in the Pulpit. 


Whilst no people can claim an unmixed purity of blood, cer¬ 
tainly none can establish such antiquity of origin, such unbroken 
generations of descent as the Hebrews. That splendid passage of 
Macaulay so often quoted, in reference to the Roman Pontiffs, 
loses its force in sight of Hebrew history. “ No other institu¬ 
tion,” says he, “is left standing which carries the mind back to 
the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, 
and when camels, leopards, and tigers bounded in the Iberian 
amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday 
as compared with the line of the supreme pontiffs; that line we 
trace back in unbroken lines from the Pope who crowned Napo¬ 
leon in the nineteenth century to the Pope who crowned Pepin 
in the eighth, and far beyond Pepin, the august dynasty extends 
until it is lost in the twilight of fable. The Republic of Venice 
came next in antiquity, but the Republic of Venice is modern 
compared with the Papacy, and the Republic of Venice is gone 
and the Papacy remains. The Catholic Church was great and 
respected before the Saxon had set foot on Britain, before the 
Frank had passed the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still 
flourished at Antioch, when idols were still worshipped in the 
Temple of Mecca; and she may still exist in undiminished vigor 
when some traveler from New Zealand in the midst of a vast 
solitude shall take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge 
to sketch the ruins of St. Paul. ” This is justly esteemed one of 
the most eloquent passages in our literature, but I submit it is 
not history. 

The Jewish people, church and institutions are still left stand¬ 
ing, though the stones of the temple remain no longer one upon 
the other, though its sacrificial fires are forever extinguished; 
and though the tribes, whose glory it was, wander with weary 
feet throughout the earth. And what is the line of Roman Pon¬ 
tiffs compared to that splendid dynasty of the successors of Aaron 
and Levi? “The twilight of fable,” in which the line of Pontiffs 
began, was but the noonday brightness of the Jewish priesthood. 
Their institution carries the mind back to the age when the 
prophet, in rapt mood, stood over Babylon and uttered God’s 
wrath against that grand and wondrous mistress of the Euphra- 
tean plains—when the Memphian chivalry still gave precedence 
to the chariots and horsemen who each morning poured forth 
from the brazen gates of the abode of Ammon; when Tyre and 
Sidon were yet building their palaces by the sea, and Carthage, 
their greatest daughter, was yet unborn. That dynasty of pro¬ 
phetic priests existed even before Clio’s pen had learned to record 
the deeds of men; and when that splendid, entombed civilization 
once lighted the shores of the Eurythraean Sea, the banks of the 
Euphrates and the plains of Shinar, with a glory inconceivable, 
of which there is naught now to tell, except the dumb eloquence 
of ruined temples and buried cities.— Zebulon B. Vanoe. 


THE JEW IN THE PULPIT. 


235 


CHAPTER X. 

THE JEW IN THE PULPIT. 

Until within comparatively recent times the 
Jews of the United States received their clergy 
from abroad. The first attempt worthy of 
note to preach in English was made by Rev. 
Isaac Leeser in Philadelphia on June, 2, 1830. 
The best way to gauge the merit of Jewish 
preachers, and learn what American Judaism 
has to say concerning vital questions, is to pre¬ 
sent abstracts from sermons preached in the 
American Jewish pulpit. The selections from 
the sermons of the following rabbis will give the 
reader a clear idea of the spirit of modern Juda¬ 
ism, showing conclusively that the fire of the 
old prophets still burns in the preachers who 
stand to-day in the synagogues of the new 
world. We have carefully read scores of ser¬ 
mons preached by rabbis in different parts of 
our country, and these sermons preached to 
Jewish congregations and printed for Jewish 
readers, bear abundant testimony that unselfish, 


236 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

decided, enthusiastic, devoted men, fill the Jew¬ 
ish pulpits. Our only regret is, that we must 
for want of space, pass by so many other dis¬ 
tinguished preachers. Kabbi Schreiber, in a 
sermon to his own people, said: 

“Unselfish men do we need in the pulpit, who 
never ask whether truth, half-truth or false¬ 
hood, will best advance their interests; who do 
not cringe before the powerful, who do not 
cater to every fad of the day and do not change 
their views with every turn of the tide. Men 
of decision do we need who, like the old proph¬ 
ets, possess the boldness and courage to 
teach a living, broad, all-embracing Judaism, 
based on the principles of service, sacrifice, 
righteousness, freedom, justice and truth. Men 
do we need who do not sell their convictions for 
a mess of pottage, who would rather be right 
than popular, who lead and are not led and who 
dare to ignore the applause or the ridicule of 
ignorant or unprincipled critics. Men do we 
need who amid the ravages of ambition, the 
mean aims of egotism and under the burdens of 
great trials and tribulations spurn the fairest 
gifts of fortune in the pursuit of duty and the 
vindication of the cause of humanity. Men do 
we need who in this age of materialism dare to 
believe that purity of motive is not a dream of 


THE JEW IN THE PULPIT. 237 

fancy, but that it is placed within our reach and 
is the very end of our being. Such men and 
such men only, will make our pulpit an attrac¬ 
tive source of centralization and a power of 
spiritual elevation. They will contribute to¬ 
ward the spread of Jewish ideas and hasten the 
Messianic time, when “righteousness will flow 
like water and justice like a mighty stream.” 

WHO AKE THE REAL ATHEISTS? 

Rev. Dr. Adolph Moses, answers: 

“They whose conduct belies their belief in 
the existence of God, whose life forms a glaring 
contrast to the idea of God. The belief in a 
God is not simply the highest and most certain 
of all truths, it is also the greatest and most 
potent moral idea. The idea of God implies the 
idea of divine perfection and absolute goodness. 
God and goodness are synonymous, interchange¬ 
able terms. If we believed that God was not 
goodness, we might fear Him, but we could not 
adore Him. A good man would appear to us 
more worshipful than He. Religion and philos¬ 
ophy agree in holding that morality is the 
highest manifestation of the infinite in and 
through the soul of man. 

“Whatever we may think of its origin and de¬ 
velopment, as it is, it doubtless is the most glori- 


238 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

ous incarnation of the inscrutable power, of the 
Univeral Self. To believe in God does not 
mean that we simply allow that He exists, it 
means that we strive to walk in the luminous 
footsteps of His holiness, to walk in the ways of 
His justice, truth and mercy. Every virtuous 
action is a true act of worship. To curb our 
passions in obedience to the laws divine en¬ 
graved upon the tablet of our hearts is the 
grandest homage paid to the idea of God. To 
smite and overthrow the vaulting instincts of 
selfishness in order to serve the common good 
of all, is the strongest proof that a God of good¬ 
ness inspires the breast of man. He is an 
atheist who professes to believe in God but 
whose deeds put his faith to shame. He who 
declares that he considers the Ten Command¬ 
ments a revelation of God and yet violates one 
and all, he is the real atheist. He who ac¬ 
knowledges that we should recognize no other 
God beside the Eternal, and yet worships his 
own poor self as the highest being and places his 
own interests and pleasures above the highest 
interests and aims of humanity, he is a real 
atheist. He who perjures himself, who swears 
a false oath or utters lies to obtain profit or gain 
favor, he does practically deny God, he demon¬ 
strates that he does not believe in Him, “that 


THE JEW IN THE PULPIT. 239 

will not let him go unpunished that taketh His 
name in vain.” Whoever fails to honor his 
father and mother as the representatives of God 
on earth, whoever, in heartless selfishness, neg¬ 
lects his aged parents and refuses to surround 
their declining years with blessings and com¬ 
forts, he is an atheist, though he daily bend his 
knee in adoration to Him and sound His praises 
in the midst of the assembly. He that makes 
himself a slave of Mammon, who in his greed to 
amass wealth, lets the higher powers of his 
mind and heart run to waste, verily he is an 
atheist; he does by his conduct prove that he 
does not believe man to be a child and image of 
the Most High, destined to pattern his life upon 
that of divine perfection. He that defrauds his 
neighbors in any matter great or small, who 
uses false weights and false measures, is an 
atheist, he does not believe in a God that hates 
deception and injustice. He is an atheist that 
deprives the toiler of his wages, and takes away 
from the needy the fruit of his labor. That 
man is indeed an atheist who robs the sub¬ 
stance of his fellow-men by violation of the laws 
of the land, or by bribing legislatures to enact 
wicked laws to favor his inquitous schemes. 

“Whoever sacrifices duty and conscience to 
his passions is a rank atheist. The priest at the 


240 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

altar is an atheist, the teacher of righteousness 
and faith, whose heart burns with the unholy 
fire of lust. Though he make many genuflec¬ 
tions, and lift his eyes in prayer to heaven, he 
does deny God in his sinful soul. All those 
were real atheists who persecuted their fellow 
men on account of their faith, who tortured and 
murdered the children of God in the name of 
God. Torquemada and Arbenas were atheists, 
in spite of the fact that they scourged their 
bodies and sang many litanies in honor of their 
God. That ruler is an atheist and an enemy of 
God who grinds the faces of the poor and 
needy, who oppresses men on account of race 
and religion, who deprives human beings of the 
right to earn a livelihood, who withholds from 
them the means of acquiring knowledge and 
leading the lives of human beings. The Czar 
of Russia is an atheist, although he is at the 
head of the National Church; his wicked coun¬ 
sellors deny God, because they rebel against 
the laws of divine justice. He is an atehist who 
calls darkness light and evil good, who praises 
the despot, that drives mothers with their babes 
out of their homes in midwinter, and causes 
many infants to die of cold and starvation. 

'‘The irreverent Dr.-, is an atheist, though 

Sunday after Sunday he cuts capers in his pul- 


THE JEW IN THE PULPIT. 241 

pit, and calls himself the servant of God. The 
God of truth and justice is not in his heart, else 
he could not call a tyrant a benefactor of his 
people who causes infinite woe and misery 
throughout the length and breadth of his land. 
All those teachers of religion are atheists, the 
Stoeckers and the Bohlings, who on Sundays 
preach from their pulpits, ‘Love thy enemy as 
thyself,’ but as soon as they step out of their 
church, preach and practice hatred and malice, 
spread calumnies and baneful falsehoods, and 
excite in the breasts of the masses vile and 
bloodthirsty passions. 

“Whoever holds that a man can be religious 
without trying to be absolutely just, truthful 
and merciful toward all men, denies and blas¬ 
phemes God. Whoever treats his fellow-men 
with contempt, and deems them unworthy of 
associating with him on account of race or re¬ 
ligion, is an atheist, because he practically de¬ 
nies that all men are children of one Heavenly 
Father, that loves them all and whose majesty 
resides in them all. 

“It is on account of such practical atheism 
that the earth mourns and is full of desolation. 
It is on account of such practical atheism that 
the cries of the depressed and downtrodden are 
heard. Such atheism is the parent of infinite 


242 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


woe and misery. Such practical atheism has 
drenched the earth with the tears and the blood 
of the innocent. Alas, how many are entirely 
free from practical atheism? Ministers and lay¬ 
men, men and women, Gentiles and Israelites, 
one way or another deny God in their conduct. 
Oh, let us not glory in the religious doctrines 
we hold, let us not boast of the principles of 
faith which we profess. By our fruits alone let 
us prove that we believe in an all-just, all-wise, 
and all-merciful God. Let us gird ourselves 
with strength and strive to establish the king¬ 
dom of God, the kingdom of righteousness and 
love on earth. Let us endeavor to make our 
lives symbols of the perfection of God.” 

THE WEAKNESSES OF BIBLE HEKOES. 

Kabbi Edward N. Calisch, defends the Bible 
heroes thus: 

“The heroes of the Bible were heroes in 
moral conflict. Yet we find that they all had 
their weaknesses. Noah, though called a just 
and righteous man, and one who walked with 
God (Genesis ii. 9), was guilty of sodden-witted 
drunkenness. Abraham, the patriarch and 
founder of our faith, the man of perfect obe¬ 
dience, of generous and unquestioning hospital¬ 
ity, of justice, mercy and philanthropy, was 


243 


THE JEW IN THE PULPIT. 

twice guilty of cowardice and the accomplice of 
heinous crime. The deception and the strate¬ 
gies of Jacob cannot be glossed over. Moses, 
Aaron, and Miriam, all suffered the wrath of 
God because of their disobedience. The weak¬ 
ness of the mighty Samson made him the play¬ 
thing of Delilah. Saul felt, even in his lifetime, 
the results of his errors. David is, perhaps, the 
best illustration of the truth which we teach. 
He was a man who sunk to the lowest depths 
and rose to the highest heights. The whole 
gamut of human weakness and human strength 
was run by him. He played on every key in 
the great organ of the human heart, from the 
lowest bass of passion to the highest and shrill¬ 
est note of spiritual frenzy. He fell, fell often 
and deeply, but each time he rose again. 
Though Solomon walked in all the ways of wis¬ 
dom and laid down many a noble precept of 
life, yet was not himself free from sin. 

“To those who oppose, these sins and weak¬ 
nesses of the Bible heroes have been made the 
object of much scorn, ridicule, and contumelious 
attack. They will pick out the flaws and weak¬ 
nesses of each one, and, dwelling upon it and 
it alone, cry out, ‘Are these the men you hold 
up as models? A Noah, guilty of drunkenness; 
an Abraham, of cowardly desertion; a Jacob, of 


244 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

falsehood; a David, of murder; a Solomon of a 
hundred vices?’’' 

“But to the one who reads rightly these 
weaknesses of the Bible heroes are their 
strength. The Bible above all things, is for 
human guidance, human help and assistance. 
Its lessons are the lessons of human life, and its 
heroes, therefore, are human. The presence of 
the faults and the follies of its great men is 
doubly creditable to the writers of the Scrip¬ 
tures. It shows the absolute fidelity and ac¬ 
curacy with which they chronicled events. 
Naught was set down in malice, naught glossed 
over, naught extenuated. When a sin was 
committed it was not hidden or condoned. 
Often its punishment was given by its side. 
Noah is rebuked by the conduct of his sons. 
Jacob feels the humiliation of his acts, when, 
twenty years later, he meets Esau again. Mir¬ 
iam was struck with leprosy; the great law¬ 
giver and leader was not permitted to cross the 
Jordan. The intrepid Nathan stood before the 
monarch who had sinned, and flung the re¬ 
proach into his face. 

“By these very things does the Bible press 
home to us the lesson of our human and our 
Godlike being. These men were heroes and 
leaders. They sinned, yes, and by the very 


THE JEW IN THE PULPIT. 


245 


reason that they rose superior to their sins are 
they strong. The true strength lies not in 
never having fallen, but in rising after one has 
given way. ‘Though a righteous man fall seven 
times, yet will he rise again.’ Had the heroes 
of the Bible been flawless, stainless, immacu¬ 
late, perfect, they would not appeal to us as 
they do. That they were weak, we know them 
to be our brothers, fighting the same battles of 
lust, passion, temptation and allurement; that 
they conquered their weaknesses and rose to 
the sublime heights of moral truth, ay, to the 
very summit and acme of spiritual life and con¬ 
ception, teaches us that we too have these God¬ 
like possibilities within us; we too can and will 
climb the Moriah of obedience, the Sinai of a 
steadfast loyalty, the Nebo of sublime resigna¬ 
tion, and by our moral strength defeat and de¬ 
stroy the weaknesses of our moral garment. 

“For this reason, too, let us be wary in stern 
judgment. The human being is compassed by 
too many limitations to be perfect. Perfection 
is only of God. Indefectibility can only be of 
that omniscient One whose power permeates 
the worlds, whose mercy is as fathomless as 
His wisdom. Striving to be, if to an infinitesi¬ 
mal degree, like Him, in purity of thought and 
deed, let us, like Him, also remember the weak- 


246 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW, 


ness of man, and be generous in thought, kindly 
in speech, slow in condemnation, but swift to 
approve where approval may be had. As the 
best tempered metal is flexible, so the true story 
of human endeavor is not that of rigid and in¬ 
flexible indefectibility, but in the recuperative 
power of the soul that saves and raises us, 
though we have fallen seven times. 

'‘This, personally; communally let us take 
home the same lesson of modesty of bearing and 
absence of assumption, for we have need of it. 
We have fallen into the habit of considering our¬ 
selves, the Jews, as almost morally unassailable. 
We deem our history the most glorious, our 
mission the most sublime, our faith supreme 
among the annals of men. Of ourselves we 
have a hardly less exalted opinion. And when 
some time-server, some seeker after our suf¬ 
frages, or our patronage, or our influence, or char¬ 
ities, come to us, and often by our own invita¬ 
tion, and pours the honey of fulsome flattery 
before us, tells us ‘the Iraelites are among the 
best and most highly respected of our citizens; 
you never meet a Jewish beggar, and you never 
see a Jewish drunkard, or convict, or burglar,’ 
then we gulp that honey down and pat our¬ 
selves on our vain and foolish backs, and tell 
ourselves we are not only the chosen people, 


THE JEW IN THE PULPIT. 247 

but we are the perfect people, we are the salt of 
every community, flawless, stainless and sin¬ 
less. 

“There can be no greater weakness than that 
which denies all weakness. With the first part, 
the abstract, I will agree; our history, our mis¬ 
sion, and our faith are sublime and supreme. 
But Judaism and the Jews, while they should 
be in perfect unanimity, are often widely di¬ 
verse. The faith is better than its followers. 
It is folly for us to consider ourselves flawless. 
We know our weaknesses. We cannot hide 
them by, ostrich-like, hiding our heads in the 
sand heaps of self-interested flattery. ‘There 
is no man who may not sin,’ and no people, for 
a people is but a number of men. We know 
our faults and sins as a people, our cruel cold¬ 
ness to our faith, our heartless indifference to 
its needs; our deafness to its calls, our shame¬ 
facedness in acknowledgment of it, our avoid¬ 
ance of its duties and obligations; our selfish, 
cruelly selfish, disregard of all that crosses our 
convenience or our pleasures. 

“There is greater crime in knowing and con¬ 
tinuing these faults than in the faults them¬ 
selves. You have fallen. Raise yourselves up. 
The heroes of the Bible have shown the path¬ 
way. Be ye heroes, not in never having fallen, 


US 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


but fallen, in raising yourselves up; for the 
righteous man is not he who has never fallen, 
but he who has risen up, though fallen seven 
times.” 

religion’s call. 

Rabbi Samuel Schulmann thus sets forth his 
view of life: 

“Our life is and remains a failure, until we 
have learned to go out of self, humbly obeying, 
lovingly, helping, joyously clinging to God, who 
is to be for us the very essence and perfection 
of what is true, good and right. The good way 
is to do justice, love mercy and walk in humility 
with God. Paraphrased, it means avoid what is 
wrong, unjust, impure. Do to others what is 
helpful, lifting and encouraging, and with all be 
ready in humility without any claim for thyself 
even to offer thyself entirely to God. 

“Beligion always has been and is to-day this 
call to man as man. To observe the facts of 
life, to study its tendencies, and find the way 
which brings rest to the lacerated heart, the 
troubled conscience, the aspiring soul. It is not 
merely creed, although man, being intellectual, 
must necessarily make one. It is not merely 
good deeds, although this is the noblest fruit¬ 
age, and most solid proof of the genuineness. 
It is not ceremonial and symbolical, although 


THE JEW IN THE PULPIT. 249 

these are helps. Religion, daughter of heaven, 
organic to man, has created them all. It is that 
which out of the depths of man’s being calls to 
him saying: ‘Stand on the ways and study 
your life; seek the right way, and walk in it 
and you will find rest.’ Who, in reviewing 
his life, does not find the need of faith, of a 
principle higher than that which he is wont to 
use in his thoughtless daily experience? The 
happy need religion to save them from hard in¬ 
difference and pride; the virtuous need it to 
protect them from self-righteousness, the cause 
of moral corruption; the sinner surely needs it 
as an inspiration, a promise of help to rise from 
his degradation. Those aspiring to a higher life 
obtain renewed conviction from its message; the 
suffering and heart-broken obtain peace and rest. 
So, friends, let us seek our God while he is to 
be found. Let us call upon him when he is 
near. May the new year bring to all life, pros¬ 
perity and happiness. But as we pray, ‘Re¬ 
member us to life, King desirous of life, for Thy 
sake, 0 God of life,” let us be filled with the 
truth that this prayer brings not to us the need¬ 
ful help, unless it is supplemented by that sim¬ 
ple petition of the divine singer: ‘0 make me 
understand, that I may live.’ Let us learn that 
to truly live we must forget self. Let us ask 


250 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


the ancient ways, find the way that is good, 
the way that turns us from indolent, thought¬ 
less, self-indulgence, from impure thoughts and 
vicious deeds, from cruel and heartless want of 
sympathy, from futile pride and narrow ego¬ 
tism. Let us walk the way of God, and find 
rest and bliss, peace and happiness.” 

A DEFINITION OF JUDAISM. 

Rabbi L. S. Moses, defines Judaism thus: 

“Every religion is judged by its code of ethics. 
Israel need not fear to stand this test, for if 
sifted to its very root, Judaism is by its very 
nature an ethical movement It sprang into ex¬ 
istence in opposition to the immoral practices of 
the religions around it. The very first call to 
Abraham and the promise that he shall be a 
blessing, is based on the assurance that he will 
teach the way of God to his children and to his 
household, to do justice and righteousness. 
What are then the requirements of true religion? 
asks the Psalmist: ‘Who shall ascend the hill of 
the Lord, who shall stand in His holy place? 
He who has clean hands and a pure heart.’ Or 
listen to the Prophets’ creed, ‘Wherewith shall 
I come before the Lord? bow myself before the 
Most High? He has told thee, 0 man, what is 
good, and what God requires of thee; to do 


THE JEW IN THE PULPIT. 


251 


justly, to love virtue, to walk humbly with thy 
God.’ Study the history of Israel. The stages 
of his growth are the milestones of his moral 
development; intertwined and interwoven with 
his political life is the growth of his ethical 
ideas. Even his ceremonial laws and precepts 
were but symbolical of moral obligation. The 
morality of Judaism has often been contrasted 
with that of Christianity and declared to be on 
a lower level, and resting on selfish motives. 
If there be traces in the Old Testament and 
Talmudic teachings of a doctrine that makes 
reward the incentive of a moral act, the whole 
life of Israel is a refutation of this charge. 
For a whole nation, during hundreds of years, 
to pursue a path of duty in the face of almost 
insurmountable difficulties, to bear the persecu¬ 
tion of the world and suffer unparalleled martyr¬ 
dom, does not betray a selfish nature swayed 
by mercenary motives. The love of God and 
the love of virtue did not bring to the Jew the 
compensation craved and promised. For, let it 
be remembered that the rewards mentioned in 
the Old Testament have reference to this life on 
earth only, to temporal happiness and well¬ 
being, to the permanence of national life; there 
is no allusion to celestial rewards, to heavenly 
banquets, enlivened by angelic music. Yet in 


252 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

the face of facts, what were the rewards of the 
Jew for his faithfulness and his virtue? If he 
did not crave heaven, he certainly did not win 
the earth; the joys and pleasures of the world 
were not his share. Nor is the charge of inade¬ 
quate morality true even if judged by the cur¬ 
rent of his literature. The present generation 
of high-minded Christians would declare it a 
misstatement of facts were their morality to be 
judged by the standard of the New Testament 
only, or by the practices of the mediaeval church. 
They claim progress, not only in thought, but 
also in morals. Does not the same law hold 
good for us? Has Israel not progressed ethi¬ 
cally as well as intellectually since the last two 
thousand years? The Talmud, that oft-ma¬ 
ligned book, is full of passages breathing the 
most unselfish morality: ‘Be not like hired ser¬ 
vants that work for reward. Be rather like 
slaves that serve their master without thought 
of compensation.’ And another rabbi said, 
‘The reward of a good deed is another good 
deed, and one virtue brings another in its wake; 
and the punishment of sin is sin.’ Is this not a 
higher standard of virtue than the leering 
glance toward a crown in heaven? To do good 
because God commanded it is a nobler incentive 
than to do God’s command in order to save one’s 


THE JEW IN THE PULPIT. 253 

soul. Whether the soul of man is immortal or 
not is a matter of theological speculation and 
faith; with the Jew it never enters as a motive 
of morality. As God is merciful and kind to 
His creatures out of His infinite love and com¬ 
passion for them, so must man fulfill the moral 
behest out of his deep love for God—for God’s 
sake and not for his own sake—neither here nor 
hereafter—shall man love virtue and practice it. 
This theory of ethics has been fully exemplified 
in the life of Israel. His morality has not been 
closed up in a book and read as devotional liter¬ 
ature on the Sabbath Day while the week days 
testify to a different system; but his whole life 
was permeated by the feeling of moral obliga¬ 
tion, to do the will of his Heavenly Father. That 
will is a righteous, just and holy one, which de¬ 
mands not of a man anything that is unreason¬ 
able, unjust, or unholy.” 

INTELLECTUAL PRIDE. 

Smartness is peculiarly an American weak¬ 
ness, and has been the death of some people. 
Rabbi Leon Harrison speaking of our insane 
self-reliance, this turning our back on the past 
because we know more than our fathers, said: 

” When Disraeliwas contesting a parliamentary 
election he spoke at a turbulent public meeting 


254 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

as an independent candidate to the voters. They 
were dissatisfied with his independent principles 
and the cry arose, ‘What is your platform? 
Where do you stand, sir?’ ‘On my head,’ was 
the quick reply. His platform was his head. 
He took his stand upon his brains. And this 
generation as a whole is trying to stand on its 
head; to plant itself upon imperfect informa¬ 
tion, to substitute thinking for feeling, and facts 
for faith. There is a world of difference be¬ 
tween being headstrong and being hearty.” 

THE DIVINE PUEPOSE OF THE SYNAGOGUE 

is thus set forth by Hr. Bernard Drachman: 

“The humble tabernacle in the wilderness 
was the inception, the first modest beginning of 
an institution which was destined to become 
the central feature, the chief distinguishing 
characteristic of Judaism and the daughter re¬ 
ligions descended from it—the institution of 
public services in edifices especially devoted 
and dedicated to the worship of the Most High. 

This naturally turns our mind to a considera¬ 
tion of the whole subject. We ask, prompted 
by an involuntary impulse, ‘What is the need of 
these pompous edifices? Is the worship of God 
only conceivable within buildings of stone and 
brick, and clothed in the arguments of human 
ceremonialism?’ 


THE JEW IN THE PULTIT. 


255 


“The question thus put must be answered in 
the negative. Scripture itself points to nature 
as better adopted to impress us with an over¬ 
powering sense of Divine Omnipotence and to 
fill our being with deep religious emotions than 
houses built by mortal hands, and were they 
never so magnificent and imposing in the beauty 
of their architecture and the wealth of their ap¬ 
pointments. ‘The heavens declare the glory of 
God, and the work of His hands telleth the 
firmament.’ 

“In the freedom of nature, where the prime¬ 
val forest trees rear their massive trunks and 
the myriad leaves tremble in the winds; where 
old ocean spreads its vast, sheer, illimitable 
expanse, or where the tremendous mountains 
with their cloud-clad summits reduce by com¬ 
parison the puny works of man into insignifi¬ 
cance, there indeed, may we worship in rever¬ 
ential awe the Omnipotent Author of Nature 
and repeat with rapture born of conviction the 
joyful strain of the seraphic choir, ‘Holy, holy, 
holy, is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is 
full of His glory.’ 

Such worship, however, while most true and 
real, does not suffice for the religious need of 
man. It may fill him with a profound convic¬ 
tion of the power of the Deity and of His infi- 


256 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


nite wisdom in thus wonderfully ordering and 
governing the material universe, but there must 
stop. It cannot teach him his duties toward 
the Supreme Being, it cannot enlighten him con¬ 
cerning his place among his fellow-men, either 
as a member of the religious or political com¬ 
munity. In regard to all these matters the for¬ 
ests and the mountains are dumb and the sea 
returns no response even to the most ardent 
and urgent pleadings, but continues to dash its 
waves against the rocky barriers of the cliffs 
with unvarying, dull and unintelligible murmur. 

‘"Here is where the benefit and usefulness of 
the synagogue, of the house of God, is most 
unquestionable and unmistakble. 

“The synagogue speaks to its attendants in 
clear tones and distinct accents; it tells them 
why they are Jews through its beautiful sym¬ 
bols and usages, so rich in religious significance; 
in the teachings of its minister and the suppli¬ 
cation and prayers which he addresses to the 
Divine Father; it keeps constantly awake and 
alive in the breasts of its visitors a realizing 
sense of their duties as moral men and women 
and as faithful Israelites and servants of God. 

“The synagogue is, therefore, the fountain 
head of morality and faith; it is the source from 
which flow numberless influences for good unto 


THE JEW IN THE PULPIT. 


257 


those within the reach of its activity which 
tend to purify and ennoble their lives, to con¬ 
secrate their hands and hearts to the doing of 
whatever is righteous and good, and to elevate 
their minds by turning them from worldly things 
to the contemplation of the sublime ideal 
afforded by the Perfect One before whom we 
bow in humble worship and homage. 

“The symbols of the sanctuary beautifully 
suggest its purposes. Our sages say that on 
three things the welfare of the world depends— 
the law, the service of God and the doing of 
kindness to others. The ark of the testimony 
is a symbol of the first, the altar of the second, 
and the heart offering which was given by the 
free will of the heart is a symbol of the third of 
these three requisites. The cherubim convey a 
similar symbolic meaning. Their wings were 
uplifted to indicate that the human soul should 
endeavor to commune with the Father in 
heaven; they stood by the ark of the testimony 
to denote that all religion must be grounded on 
the divine law, and their faces looked toward 
each other to show that men must meet each 
other in mutual affection, esteem, and kindness. 

“We cannot surrender the synagogue, its les¬ 
sons are too valuable, its inspiration too potent 
and salutary. For us Jews it has an additional 


258 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


value, for it is to us a spiritual home, a world 
different from that by which we are surrounded. 

“In the synagogue we behold again our glori¬ 
ous antiquity, we sing the songs of Zion, we 
pray in the sacred tongue of Zion, we meet in 
spiritual communion the prophets, the lawgiver 
the rabbins, the great and holy men of all ages 
—we listen again to their voices and are in¬ 
structed by their words of wisdom. 

“Oh, long may the synagogue stand to draw 
Israel nearer to its God! Never may the sum¬ 
mons cease to be heard, ‘Open ye the gates and 
let enter the holy nation which keepeth the 
faith.’—Amen.” 


The Attitude of Modern Judaism Toward 
Christianity. 


Why not strive through the coming ages to live in fraternal 
concord and harmonious unison with all the nations of the 
globe ? Not theory but practice, deed not creed, should be the 
watchword of modern races stamped with blazing characters of 
rational equity and useful brotherhood.— Rabbi Alexander 
Kohut. 

Truth unites and appeases; error begets antagonism and 
fanaticism. It seems, therefore, the best method to unite the 
human family in harmony, peace and good will is to construct a 
rational and humane system of theology, as free from error as 
possible, clearly defined and appealing directly to the reason and 
conscience of all normal men. —Rabbi Isaac M. Wise. 


THE ATTITUDE OF MODERN JUDAISM. 261 


CHAPTER XI. 

THE ATTITUDE OF MODERN JUDAISM TOWARD 
CHRISTIANITY. 

Rabbi Gustav Gottheil, whose record of 
twenty-five years in New York City is one of 
broad philanthropy, profound scholarship and 
earnest devotion to the cause of religion, is a 
splendid exponent of the attitude of modern 
Judaism toward Christ. 

In a series of lectures which Dr. Gottheil de¬ 
livered on the theme “Jesus and the Jews,” he 
stood manfully for the view that, as a people, 
the Jews never did reject Jesus. He pointed to 
the fact that, as in the days of Jesus, the Jews 
were already widely scattered, and the means 
of communication were slow and difficult, only 
a small minority of the race within the bound¬ 
aries of Judea were cognizant of the mission, 
the teachings, the doings or even the existence 
of Jesus. The great majority were in complete 
ignorance of his life and the manner of his 
death, and therefore could not be held account¬ 
able for the tragedy of Calvary. 


262 JUSTICE TO THE JEW, 

The New Testament, Dr. Gottheil pointed 
out, records in many places that in Judea itself 
wherever He went Jesus was followed by 
crowds, who listened eagerly to His doctrines. 
He was admitted into the synagogues, though 
His teachings were subversive of the prevailing 
religion and the existing social system, and 
when He drove the money changers from the 
temple itself it is not recorded that any one 
rose in opposition. He bitterly assailed the 
Pharisees, and yet when He predicted the ruin 
of the temple and nation, and some would have 
stoned Him, the scribes and Pharisees gathered 
around to protect him. 

The Gospels seem to Dr. Gottheil to show 
that the Jews rejected Jesus only “as God or 
part of the deity.” “As a moral instructor 
they listened to Him with respect,” said Dr. 
Gottheil. “As the Messiah they neither ac¬ 
cepted nor rejected Him, waiting for the proofs 
of His claim, for they had been taught to expect 
an earthly ‘King of the Jews.’ Jesus was 
loved and respected, and when He entered 
Jerusalem He had a royal reception, and some 
cried‘Hosannah to the son of David!’so that 
the whole city was stirred by the tumult. The 
scribes, who were the guardians of the public 
peace, were appalled by His revolutionary and 


THE ATTITUDE OF MODERN JUDAISM. 263 

communistic doctrines and feared the vengeance 
of Rome. The few priests who opposed Him 
did so, as they thought, in the interests of 
peace.” 

In a recent sermon on “Reconciliation,” Dr. 
Gottlieil selected for his text: “Have we not all 
one father? Hath not one God created us all?” 

“Those who gave any attention to the char¬ 
acter of the topics that I chose for these lec¬ 
tures,” said the preacher, “must have noticed 
that they all tended in one direction namely, to 
advocate a better understanding and a more 
friendly disposition between the various creeds 
and churches. I recall some of those who' be¬ 
lieve that the churches should also disarm. 
But then follows the question, ‘After disarma¬ 
ment, what?’ 

“Judaism and Christianity originally were 
of one faith. They are children of the same 
household, and their division has been of 
no advantage to either side. They have still 
more things in common than causes for division. 
Have we not all one father? Do not all worship 
the same God? We Israelites call ourselves 
monotheists, and would not the Christian hotly 
resent the imputation that he is a polytheist? 
Then there is the Bible, and I must confess that 
the majority of Christians are far more zealous 


264 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

in maintaining the high authority of this ancient 
book than are we Jews. True, the church has 
added another book to it like a superstructure. 
But what would that be without its foundation 
of the Old Testament? You cannot shake that 
without endangering the safety of the whole 
building. 

“Are we not monotheists? Do we not believe 
in one God? Certainly; and our Christian 
friends would justly resent it were we to call 
them polytheists. Then, here is our Bible, the 
sacredness of which, I am candid enough to 
say, is better maintained by the Christians. 
That church added the New Testament. By 
whom was it written? Every page by Jewish 
hands—the most vital part by Paul, a Hebrew 
of the Hebrews, a rabbi of the strictest stripe, 
than whom, after his conversion, there never 
was a prouder Israelite. This Old Testament 
of ours is the foundation stone of all Christian¬ 
ity. Although a superstructure has been 
added, does that invalidate the foundation? 

“This is the time for great combinations in 
mercantile affairs. I do not possess much capa¬ 
city for financial affairs, and I never have been 
sorry for it. But the children of this world are 
wise in their generation. Why should not we 
whose field of action lies in a special sphere 


THE ATTITUDE OF MODERN JUDAISM. 265 

take a point from them and make our own busi¬ 
ness enterprises less expensive and more effec¬ 
tive by putting our heads and hands together 
and working so much more effectively for the 
relief of the suffering and the saving of those 
who are ready to perish? 

“One other point that seems to plead for 
unity is that of the broadening of our views. 
Each church has its strong and weak sides. 
Some people seem to attach the greatest im¬ 
portance to the life in the other world to which 
the present is only a stepping stone, while 
others are sure that they can create a paradise 
here on earth, and try to do so. Some wrap 
themselves up in endless formalities and 
rituals, as our own people did for many centu¬ 
ries, and our orthodox folk are still doing. 
Others would throw off all forms and so spirit¬ 
ualize and moralize their religious faith that 
they justify the remark recently made by a 
young student in our Hebrew Union College 
that the ultra-radicals would reduce Judaism to 
an ethical culture society with God as an honor¬ 
ary member. 

“Well, we are all entitled to our opinions. 
But would it not be of great advantage if we 
came nearer to each other and tried by ‘rubbing 
against each other* to smooth off the sharp cor- 


266 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

ners of our systems? People travel thousands 
of miles and cross oceans merely to learn the 
habits and accomplishments of other nations. 
But in the spiritual continent we are satisfied 
and even make boast of being totally ignorant 
of the homes of our next-door neighbors. 

“Is my plea timely? I unhesitatingly say 
yes. At the period when we still remember the 
congress of religions in Chicago, when we hear 
of a congress of liberal religions held only re¬ 
cently at Omaha, and when there is a prospect 
that before this summer is over there will be a 
congress of all churches in our State, here in 
our city, I think I may claim that I am acting 
on the Biblical principle. ‘A word in season, 
oh, how good it is!’ ” 

THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF JUDAISM. 

Rev. Dr. K. Kohler recently delivered a lecture 
on “The New Testament in the light of Juda¬ 
ism” before the Philadelphia council of Jewish 
women. In taking the New Testament as his 
subject, Dr. Kohler said that he proposed to 
offer some aids toward finding the true histori¬ 
cal setting from a Jewish point of view for that 
great personality which has divided human his¬ 
tory into two halves. We quote from the report 
of his leoture as printed in The Jewish Exponent: 


THE ATTITUDE OF MODERN JUDAISM. 267 

“There was a time when yon and I were 
taught not even to mention the name of Jesus 
the Christ in order not to transgress the law, 
which says: ‘Ye shall not mention the name of 
other gods, neither shall it be heard upon your 
mouth/ Nor need we wonder at that. It was 
little short of idolatry which a paganized church 
made herself guilty of in her worship of Jesus 
and His mother. Christianity has advanced 
since toward the light of Jewish monotheism. 
It is Jesus as a man, as an ideal of humanity, 
that is now held up for adoration and emula¬ 
tion by Christian theology, in spite of the Trini¬ 
tarian dogma. Both art and literature portray 
Him no longer as a God, but as a wondrously 
gifted teacher and healer of men, who appeals 
to our human sympathy. Nay, more. His 
Apollo face gave way to the historically more 
correct type of the Jew. He is recognized as 
one of Israel's great sons, whatever the restric¬ 
tion in the flesh may amount to. Should we, 
then, as Jews, not also gladly and proudly own 
Him as one of our noblest of men and accord to 
Him the proper position in our own history? 
The difficulty is how to obtain a correct view of 
His life and character, and discern the real facts 
amidst all the legends surrounding His career 
from the cradle to the grave.” 


268 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

Dr. Kohler went on to say that neither Renan 
nor any of the German or English critics suc¬ 
ceeded in presenting a true picture of the Gali¬ 
lean preacher. Of the attitude taken by Jew¬ 
ish historians, he said: 

“Geiger treats Him like David Strauss, as a 
sort of myth, while reducing Him to a mere 
shadow of Hillel, the liberal-minded Pharisee. 
Graetz sees in the whole movement only the 
outcome of the Essene school, and so the whole 
New Testament literature is brushed aside with 
a shrug. Only the figure of Paul stands out in 
bold relief as the actual builder of the church 
of Christian opposition to the Jewish law. Be¬ 
sides these, a few popular writers like old Dr. 
Philippson of Magdeburg, and Dr. Wise of Cin¬ 
cinnati, have endeavored to show that the crim¬ 
inal proceedings which ended in the crucifixion 
of Jesus cannot possibly have been carried on 
before a Jewish court in the manner recorded 
in the Gospels, and that, consequently, the 
Jews are reported in a false light. A critical 
work, doing full justice to the character of 
Jesus as a worker among the Jews and present¬ 
ing His sayings and doings or whatever is attrib¬ 
uted to Him m the full daylight of history, has 
not been attempted as yet.’ 

“As the clouds neveal rather than hide the 


THE ATTITUDE OF MODERN JUDAISM. 269 

dawn,” continued Dr. Kohler, “so do the myths 
that gather around a popular hero disclose 
rather than obscure the charm and power of his 
personality. He continues: 

“Those beautiful and strange tales about the 
things that happened around the Lake of Galilee 
show that there was some spiritual daybreak in 
that dark corner of Judea of which official Juda¬ 
ism had not taken sufficient cognizance, that a 
movement was inaugurated then which did not 
receive its impulse or its sanction from the reg¬ 
ular authorities or schools. It matters not 
whether we accord to Jesus the claim and title 
of Messiah or Christ or not, whether the people 
and authorities of Judea did or not, or whether 
He Himself assumed it at any moment of His 
life, or, as the older sources indicate, He re¬ 
ceived the same only after His death. Chris¬ 
tianity forms the high-water mark of the Mes¬ 
sianic movement in a spiritual sense, exactly as 
the Barkochba war, under the Emperor Hartian, 
was its highest and last political explosion. It 
is, therefore, one of the most interesting his¬ 
torical and psychological studies of Judaism to 
follow this movement through all its phases 
from the moment the cry of the coming—‘the 
kingdom of heaven’—was heard on the shores 
of the Jordan among the humble Baptists until 


270 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

the fishermen of Galilee carried the good tidings 
or good spell (gospel) as the watchword of a 
new faith triumphantly out into the wide 
world." 

Dr. Kohler went on to say that all records 
point to John the Baptist as the originator of 
this movement of repentance and purification, 
and that Jesus was among those who received 
baptism at his hands. But between the atti¬ 
tudes of the people toward these two teachers, 
there yawns a gulf "which no ordinary reasoning 
of either Jew or Gentile could easily bridge 
over.” The New Testament writings, we are 
told, are so many pleas and learned arguments 
to convince both Jews and Gentiles that Jesus 
is the Messiah. Modern Bible criticism estab¬ 
lishes that the four gospels were written in the 
form in which we possess them between the 
time of the restoration of the temple in the 
year 70 and the Hadrianic war, 120 Christian 
era. To Dr. Kohler these gospels are not 
merely treatises pleading for Jesus Christ, but 
polemical writings intended to win the favor of 
Rome by fixing the blame of the Crucifixion 
upon the hated Jew. This he finds true of the 
Pauline gospel in particular: 

“It is the product of Christianized Philonic 
philosophy. Jesus therein speaks and acts no 


THE ATTITUDE OF MODERN JUDAISM. 271 

longer as an ordinary man, but as the Word of 
God become flesh. He is no longer to be com¬ 
pared with Moses, who brought down the bread 
from heaven and water out of the rock, but He 
is Himself the heavenly Manna, the Bread and 
the Water of life, like the Torah. He only is 
the good Shepherd, for He is the Door and the 
Life of the flock. The whole book is a beautiful 
Christian Midrash, a commentary on the Gospel 
story, but full of venomous hatred of the Jews. 
These are represented as the enemies of Jesus, 
ever eager to kill Him, and at the same time 
so stupid as not to know what rebirth or regen¬ 
eration, what resurrection or pre-existence is. 
Those very ideas which Christianity derived 
from Judaism remain unintelligible to the stub¬ 
born Jews. In fact, the entire contest of Jesus 
with the priesthood and the scribes is here 

transferred to the Jews as a race. 

“It is preposterous to imagine that the Jews, 
praying day after day in their synagogues for the 
coming of the kingdom of heaven and the de¬ 
livery from the yoke of Borne, should have hated 
and persecuted Jesus, who, of all the preachers 
of good tidings, was the most tender-hearted 
and meekest. Impossible that the crowds 
should have cried out: ‘Crucify Him!’ when 
two days before they had greeted Him with: 



272 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

‘Hosannah to the son of David!’ Still more im¬ 
possible that the bloodthirsty Roman Pontius 
Pilate should have all of a sudden become scru¬ 
pulous and lenient toward Jesus, and, while 
His hangmen, the soldiers, mocked and smote 
and treated Him in the most brutal manner, he 
should have washed His hands, in Jewish fash¬ 
ion, to protest His own innocence in the con¬ 
demnation and crucifixion! Later on, in Chris¬ 
tian writings, Pontius Pilate appears as a verit¬ 
able saint and the Jews as fiends. It is high 
time for us Jews to take up the study of the 
New Testament in order to remonstrate against 
this forgery, this Dreyfus case of eighteen hun¬ 
dred years ago, and refute the incriminating 
charge implied in the word: ‘Let His blood 
be on us and our children!’ by which the poison 
and Jew hatred is being instilled in the heart of 
all generations.” 

According to Dr. Kohler, the priestly Sad- 
ducees, not the people and their Phariseean 
leaders, persecuted Jesus and delivered Him to 
death, because of His open attack upon priestly 
misrule. All the anti-Jewish utterances he 
finds to be the work of the Pauline school: 

“Paul had a great providential mission to ful¬ 
fill. We must not deny him this, though we 
cannot follow him in his quaint logic nor in his 


THE ATTITUDE OF MODERN JUDAISM. 273 

bewildering metaphysics or mysticism. His 
letters are the manifestation of a strong mind 
and firm spirit akin to Pope Hildebrand, 
Luther, and Calvin. What a few heretics be¬ 
fore him attempted, and failed, he achieved on a 
grand scale—he broke down the barriers of the 
law to let the heathen world enter the kingdom 
of the Messiah. He gave Christianity a new 
meaning, a new direction. He created a new 
church. He stands at the parting of the ways. 
He is no longer a Jew, though he called himself 
a Hebrew of the Hebrews and one of the Phar¬ 
isees. Quite different is the life work of Jesus. 
Every word uttered by Him has the ring of 
Jewish sentiment and betrays the originality of 

a religious genius. 

“There are hundreds of sentences in the Tal¬ 
mud or Mishnah similar to those in the New 
Testament, only they lack the charm and 
beauty the classical language of Greece has lent 
to the latter. Nevertheless, we cannot close 
our eyes to the one great fact that this man 
Jesus must have made a wonderful impression 
on His hearers by the thousand and one sweet 
and beautiful things He said, no matter by 
whom they were uttered before or after, or else 
He could not have been made author of these a 
generation or two after He lived. 



274 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

“Time does not permit me to show in what 
respect and why Jesus deviated from John the 
Baptist and the rest of the Essenes. Suffice it 
to say that His greatness belonged to no school. 
He was a man of the people. The Essene ideal 
of love and brotherly kindness took a new form 
in Him. He felt that divine power of pity 
which cares not for the pollution of sinners, if 
only the tears can be wiped out by tears of pen¬ 
itence. He had, unlike any other teacher or 
prophet, a message, a gospel of heavenly re¬ 
demption for the despised, the illiterate, the 
forsaken, and they crowned Him with the dia¬ 
dem of the Messiah. 

“His wondrous powers of healing also show 
Him to have been a disciple of the Essenes. 
The holy spirit which played so prominent a 
role in the life of the Essenes works also mir¬ 
acles through Him, carries Him through the air, 
and opens the prison door for His disciples.” 

THE JEWISH SUNDAY-SABBATH. 

One of the few questions which divide the Jew¬ 
ish church in this country to-day is that relat¬ 
ing to the observance of one day in seven as a 
day of rest and worship. On this point the 
views held by different classes and leaders of 
the Jewish people differ widely. The reform 


THE ATTITUDE OF MODERN JUDAISM. 275 

Jews are in favor of observing Sunday instead 
of Saturday, thus conforming, as they say, to the 
established custom of the vast majority of the 
people in civilized lands. The orthodox Jews 
vigorously oppose such a measure of conformity 
as contrary both to the spirit and the doctrine 
of the founders of their faith. The discussion 
of this subject has been given special attention 
recently by reason of the observance of the 
twenty-fifth anniversary in Chicago of the in¬ 
stitution of Sunday observance in the Sinai con¬ 
gregations in that city. 

The chief points in favor of the change from 
Saturday to Sunday were presented in an ad¬ 
dress made by Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf in Phil¬ 
adelphia and printed in full in The Reform Ad¬ 
vocate (Jewish, Chicago). Speaking of the 
leaders of the movement Dr. Krauskopf said: 

“They saw that the Jewish Sabbath-day of 
the Orient did not fit into the different condi¬ 
tions of the Christianized Occident. They 
recognized that the different conditions created 
by the hundreds of millions of Christian people 
could not be altered to suit the preference of the 
handful of Jews,and that the attempt of forcing it 
could only result disastrously for the Sabbath 
and the Jew. And so they determined to ex¬ 
change the no longer suitable Oriental frame of 


276 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

the beautiful Sabbath for the Occidental frame,, 
and thus retain within its new setting the glory 
and beauty of the old Jewish Sabbath. They 
determined to preserve all its essentials, all of 
its spirit of holiness and rest and delight, as en- 
joind in Scriptures, only shifting it from the 
day once best suited for the observance in the 
Orient, the Saturday, to the only day now pos¬ 
sible for its rightful observance and perpetua¬ 
tion in the Occident, the Sunday.” 

Reviewing the arguments of the opponents of 
the movement Dr. Krauskopf declares that the 
custom of observing Saturday as a holy day 
was heathen in its origin and was so observed 
long before the law was given on Sinai. The 
change proposed is therefore “simply substitu¬ 
ting one Sabbath-day of heathen origin for an¬ 
other of the same origin.” For this reason Dr. 
Krauskopf contends that the change is not “a 
concession to Christianity.” But on this point 
Dr. Krauskopf proceeds to say further: 

“And even if we had made a concession, I for 
one will not hesitate to take from it what is 
true and good and serviceable, and proudly and 
publicly acknowledge my indebtedness. Has 
not Christianity taken from us what is true and 
good and serviceable in its creed? Is not its 
God our God? Is not the head of its church a 


THE ATTITUDE OF MODERN JUDAISM. 277 

son of our race? Is not its very Sunday rest 
our Sabbath, and shall we refuse to accept what 
is our own, because it is celebrated on a day 
originally sacred to the sun, and not on the day 
originally sacred to the moon or Saturn, or be¬ 
cause the heathen dogma of a God-resurrection 
and not of a God-resting has been attached to 
that day? 

“ ‘What!’ interpose our antagonists, ‘cele¬ 
brate our Sabbath on the day chosen by Con¬ 
stantine the Great and by the Council of Nice as 
a mark of separation of the Christian Church 
from the hated and despised Jewish Church!’ 
This opposition, too, is largely based on erro¬ 
neous grounds. It was not they, the enemies of 
the Jews, who chose the Sunday. It was Paul, 
the Jew, who embraced it, almost three cen¬ 
turies earlier—in his give-and-take policy—in 
order that he might find readier access for his 
new teachings, which, for the most part, were 
Jewish.” 

And as for the argument that the Sunday- 
Sabbath will end the distinction of the Jews as 
a separate church and people, it is replied: 

“And why should we be distinguishable, and 
chiefly by a Saturday-Sabbath whose present 
mode of observance by us contributes far more 
to our shame than to our distinction? And is 


278 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


Judaism dependent for its distinction and per¬ 
petuation on the outward form? And what of our 
oft-professed duty to enlighten the non-Jew con¬ 
cerning the true religion? What of our much-pro¬ 
claimed mission of uniting the whole human fam¬ 
ily into a common brotherhood under the com¬ 
mon fatherhood of God? Shall we expect the 
non-Jew to flock to our deserted shrines on Satur¬ 
day, whither Jews will not or cannot flock on 
that day? Shall we expect non-Jews to make 
the sacrifices on that day which the Jew him¬ 
self will not or cannot make. When are we to 
do our preaching and teaching to the non-Jew, 
if on Saturday he cannot attend, and if on Sun¬ 
day, when he is free to attend, we keep the 
doors of our shrines locked? Those of us who 
have opened wide the doors of our shrines on 
Sunday, and have extended a hearty welcome 
to all who cared to come and listen, have abun¬ 
dantly realized that Judaism has never had a 
missionary like the Sunday-Sabbath, that it has 
attracted thousands of non-Jews to our services 
and sermons, and has made friends and sup¬ 
porters and champions of those who, before that, 
had been swayed by prejudices against Jews, 
and by animosities against Judaism.” 

Among the papers strongly opposed to the in¬ 
novation is The Jewish Exponent (Philadelphia). 


THE ATTITUDE OF MODERN JUDAISM. 279 

It declares that the Sunday-Sabbath, so far as 
observed, has not been a success, that it has not 
increased the attendance at religious services, 
and that it has failed to promote that unity and 
harmony between Jews and non-Jews which it 
was claimed it would do. It proceeds from this 
to say: 

“If a Sunday-Sabbath for Jews is impossible, 
there remains but the alternative of observance 
of the Jewish Sabbath, as of yore, the symbol 
of our covenant with God, the bond of our union 
with Israel throughout the world, the hallowing 
and consecrating power throughout our past 
history, the source and means of our survival 
to the present day. We have no word of scorn 
for ‘women-proxies.’ We say to the women in 
Israel, Go on in the sacred work of Sabbath 
preservation. Sanctify your homes, that there¬ 
in, at least, the Sabbath spirit may abide, and 
that all those who dwell therein may feel its con¬ 
secrating power throughout their entire lives. 
Let every effort at Sabbath observance be en¬ 
couraged. We have no scorn for those who 
would sanctify even a portion of the day. To 
an even greater extent is this day becoming of 
less and less importance in legal and finan¬ 
cial circles, in wholesale business and manufac¬ 
turing industries. In the summer, to a very 


280 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


large extent, and throughout the rest of the 
year in many pursuits, it has become a half-hol¬ 
iday. Were the Jews unitedly to abstain from 
labor its importance would be still further re¬ 
duced. The sacrifice involved might then be 
easily made and the Jew would present an ap¬ 
pearance before the world that would inspire 
even the veriest antisemite with admiration. 
‘How shall we enlighten the non-Jew concern¬ 
ing the true religion?’ is asked. We answer, 
not by abandoning, but by conforming to our 
faith; not by words, but by deeds, testifying 
to our devotion to our religion.” 

Another paper of the same faith that argues 
against the change is The American Hebrew 
(New York). Referring to certain statements 
made by Dr. Krauskopf in his address it says: 

“Does Dr. Krauskopf mean to tell us in all 
seriousness that the new movement has en¬ 
dowed Sunday with all the glory and beauty of 
the old Jewish Sabbath? Let him mark the 
full meaning of this. Does he himself, or does a 
single member of his congregation surround the 
first day of the week with that spirit of sanctity 
that marks it off from the working days, that is 
becoming to the Sabbath? When you speak of the 
Sunday service as a means of reaching the people 
who will not or cannot attend service on the 


THE ATTITUDE OF MODERN JUDAISM. 281 

Sabbath, in order to bring to them the lessons 
of religion, that is one thing; but when a rabbi 
utters a statement like the foregoing, we see 
him, in our mind’s eye, making it with the 
tongue within the cheek. 

“Nay, nay, brother, talk not such utter non¬ 
sense ; you humbug by it no one so much as 
you do yourself. Of course, in one way the Sun¬ 
day-Sabbatarians set a good example to many of 
us who are stupid enough to stick to the old- 
fashioned day of rest; they do not shop on Sun¬ 
day nor do they market on their new Sabbath, 
nor do they go to matinees, to the Stock Ex¬ 
change, or to the ball match—but that is not 
quite their fault.” 






The Talmud. 



Where are now the great and famous monarchies (Egypt, 
Assyria, Babylon, Syro-Macedonia, and Rome) which in their 
turn subdued and oppressed the people of God ? Are they not 
vanished as a dream, and not only their power, but their very 
names lost in the earth ? Nay, not only nations have been 
punished for their cruelties to the Jews, but divine vengeance 
hath pursued even single persons who have been their persecutors 
and oppressors. Besides many individual Jewish oppressors who 
came to an untimely end may be named, Antiochus Epiphanes 
and Herod, who, after having become intolerable to themselves 
and their attendants, died in great agony; Nebuchadnezzar, who 
was stricken with insanity; Flaccus, governor of Egypt, who 
was banished and murdered, and Caligula, who was also murdered 
in the flower of his age, after a wicked short reign. And if such 
hath been the fatal end of the enemies and oppressors of the 
Jews, let it serve as a warning to all those who, at any time or 
upon any occasion, are for raising a clamor and persecution against 
them.— Bishop Newton, “Dissertations on the Prophecies.” 

Because in the world at large there is so little to remind us of 
Judaism and so much to remind us of Christianity, therefore 
must we make our homes Jewish homes, full of the associations 
of our faith, reviving the old sentiments, so that the grand old 
traditions will take deep root in youthful hearts, not easily to be 
torn up in secular conflict with the world. See that your chil¬ 
dren understand the vital tenets of their faith, that they are 
thoroughly familiar with their own history, so that they compre¬ 
hend the meaning, the importance, the privilege of their separa¬ 
tion, and then, instead of chafing against it, they will welcome 
it. Our hope lies in those who will succeed us, who will take the 
torch from our hand, who will inherit the mission we have but 
indifferently considered. This is the age of freedom; this is 
the land of freedom. Are we Jews ready for it? Are we brave 
enough to walk alone ? Can we trust ourselves ? Or must we 
go back to the confining boundaries of an isolated nationality to 
the galling disabilities of the Ghetto, to the cramping legislation 
o the Shulchan Aruch ? We have survived persecution; can we 
survive emancipation ?— Dr. M. H. Harris. 


THE TALMUD. 


285 


CHAPTER XII. 

THE TALMUD. 

Dr. Emanuel Deutsch, in that great lecture 
delivered at the Midland Institute, Birmingham, 
England, December 7, 1868, explained that the 
Talmud* is the work which embodies the civil 
and canonical law of the Jewish people; that it 
consists of the Mishnah , or text, and the com¬ 
mentary, or Gemara; that its contents have 
reference not merely to religion, but also to 
philosophy, medicine, history, jurisprudence, 
and the various branches of practical duty; that 
it is, in fact, a law, civil and criminal, national 
and international, human and divine, forming a 
kind of supplement to the Pentateuch—a sup¬ 
plement such as it took one thousand years of 
a nation’s life to produce; and that it is not 
merely a dull treatise, bat it appeals to the 
imagination and the feelings, and to all that is 

* Talmud (“Study,” iromlamad, to learn). Rabbi E. B. M. 
Browne tells the story that after his lecture at a Western Univer¬ 
sity, one of his hearers came to him and said: “I came to hear 
‘The Talmud,’ in order to know what kind of mud it is,” confes¬ 
sing his utter ignorance as to the very name. 



286 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


noblest and purest; that between the rugged 
bowlders of the law which bestrew the path of 
the Talmud, there grow the blue flowers of 
romance and poetry, in the most Catholic and 
Eastern sense. Parable, tale, gnome, saga—its 
elements are taken from heaven and earth; but 
chiefly and most lovingly from the human heart 
and from the Scripture, for every verse and 
every word in this latter became, as it were, a 
golden nail upon which it hung its gorgeous 
tapestries. But it would be a great mistake to 
suppose that the poet’s cunning had been at 
work in the Talmud. It was only his heart. 
The chief feature and charm of its contents lay 
in their utter naivete. Taken up, as appeared, 
at random, and told in their simple, inartistic, 
unconscious form, they touched the soul. But 
nothing could be much more distressing than 
to attempt to take them out of their antique 
garb and press them into some kind of modern 
fashionable dress; or worse still, to systematize 
and methodize them. It would be as well to 
attempt to systematize the songs of the bird in 
the wood, or a mother’s parting blessing. He 
had, however, to endeavor to reproduce a por¬ 
tion of the contents of the Talmud, in their own 
vague sequence and phraseolgy; and he should 
confine himself to smaller productions, as par- 


THE TALMUD. 


287 


bles, apophthegms, allegories, and the like mi¬ 
nute things, which were most characteristic, 
and required little explanation. 

The fundamental law of all human and social 
economy in the Talmud was the utter and ab¬ 
solute equality of man. It was pointed out that 
man was created alone—not more than one at 
different times, lest one should say to another, 
“I am of the better or earlier stock.” And it 
failed not to mention that man was created on 
the last day, and that even the gnat was of 
more ancient lineage than man. In a discus¬ 
sion which arose among the doctors as to which 
was the most important passage in the whole 
Bible, one pointed to the verse, “And thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” The other 
contradicted him and pointed to the words, 
“And these are the generations of man”—not 
black, not white, not great, not small—but man. 

Or, again, they pointed out the words, “And 
these are the ordinances by which men shall 
live”—not the priest, or the Levite—but men. 
The law given on Mount Sinai, the masters said, 
though emphatically addressed to one people, 
belong to all humanity. It was not given in 
any king’s land, not in any city, or inhabited 
spot, lest the other nations might say, “We 
know nothing of it.” It was given on God’s 


288 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


own highway, in the desert—not in the dark¬ 
ness and stillness of night, but in plain day, 
amid thunder and lightning. And why was it 
given on Sinai? Because it is the lowliest and 
the meekest of the mountains—to show that 
God’s spirit rests only upon them that are meek 
and lowly in their hearts. The Talmud taught 
that religion was not a thing of creed or dogma 
or faith merely, but of active goodness. Scrip¬ 
ture said: “Ye shall walk in the words of the 
Lord.” 

“But the Lord is a consuming fire—how can 
man walk in His way?” 

“By being,” they answered, “as He is— 
merciful, loving, long-suffering.” 

Mark how on the first page of the Pentateuch 
God clothed the naked—Adam; and on the last 
He buries the dead—Moses. He heals the 
sick, frees the captive, does good to His ene¬ 
mies, and He is merciful both to the living and 
to the dead. 

In close connection with this stood the re¬ 
lationship of men to their neighbors—chiefly to 
those beyond the pale of creed or nationality. 
The Talmud distinctly and strongly set its face 
against proselytism, pronouncing it to be even 
dangerous to the commonwealth. There wa& 
no occasion, it said, for conversion to Juda- 


THE TALMUD. 


289 


ism, as long as a man fulfilled the seven funda¬ 
mental laws. Every man who did so was re¬ 
garded as a believer to all intents and purposes. 
It even went so far as to call every righteous 
man an Israelite. Distinct injunctions were 
laid down with regard to proselytes. They 
were to be discouraged and warned off, and 
told that the miseries, privations, and persecu¬ 
tions which they wished to take upon them¬ 
selves were unnecessary, inasmuch as all men 
were God’s children, and might inherit the here¬ 
after; but if they persisted, they were to be 
received, and were ever afterward treated ten¬ 
derly. They illustrated this by a beautiful 
parable of a deer coming from the forest among 
a flock of sheep, and being driven off at night 
and the gate shut against it, but being after 
many trials at length received and treated with 
more tenderness than any of the sheep. Next 
stood reverence both for age and youth. They 
pointed out that not merely the tables of the 
law which Moses brought down the second time 
from Sinai, but also those which he broke in 
his rage, were carefully placed in God’s taber¬ 
nacle, though useless. Reverence old age. But 
all their most transcendental love was lavished 
on children. All the verses of Scripture that 
spoke of flowers and gardens were applied to 


290 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


children and schools. “Do not touch mine 
anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm.” 
“Mine anointed ones” were school children, 
and “my prophets” their teachers. 

The highest and most exalted title which they 
bestowed in their most poetical flights upon 
God himself was that of “Pedagogue of man.” 
There were droughts and the most pious men 
prayed and wept for rain, but none came. An 
insignificant-looking person at length prayed to 
Him who caused the wind to blow and the rain 
to fall, and instantly the heavens covered them¬ 
selves with clouds, and the rain fell. “Who 
are you,” they cried, “whose prayers alone 
have prevailed?” And he answered: “I am a 
teacher of little children.” When God intended 
to give the law to the people he asked them 
whom they would offer as their guarantees that 
they would keep it holy, and they said Abra¬ 
ham. God said: “Abraham has sinned—Isaac, 
Jacob, Moses himself—they have all sinned; 
I cannot accept th r Then they said: 

“May our children be our witnesses and our 
guarantees.” And God accepted them; even 
as it is written “From the mouths of the wee 
babes has He founded His empire.” Indeed the 
relationship of man to God they could not ex¬ 
press more pregnantly than by the most familiar 


THE TALMUD. 291 

words which occurred from one end of the Tal¬ 
mud to the other, “Our Father in Heaven.” 

Another simile was that of bride and bride¬ 
groom. There was once a man who betrothed 
himself to a beautiful maiden, and then went 
away and the maiden waited and waited and he 
came not. Friends and rivals mocked her, and 
said, “he will never come.” She went into her 
room, and took out the letters in which he had 
promised to be ever faithful. Weeping, she 
read them and was comforted. In time he re¬ 
turned, and inquiring how she had kept her faith 
so long, she showed him his letters. Israel in 
misery, in captivity, was mocked by the nations 
for her hopes of redemption; but Israel went in 
to her schools and synagogues and took out the 
letters, and was comforted. God would in 
time redeem her, and say: “How could you 
alone among all the mocking nations be faith¬ 
ful?” Then Israel would point to the law and 
answer: “Had I not your promise here?” 

Next to women, angels were the most fre¬ 
quent bearers of some of the sublimest and 
most ideal notions in the Talmud. “Under¬ 
neath the wings of the seraphim,” said the Tal¬ 
mud, “are stretched the arms of the divine 
mercy, ever ready to receive sinners.” Every 
word that emanated from God was transformed 


292 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


into an angel, and every good deed of man be¬ 
came a guardian angel to him. On Friday 
night, when the Jew left the synagogue, a 
good angel and a bad angel accompanied him. 
If, on entering the house, he found the table 
spread, the lamp lighted, and his wife and 
children in festive garments, ready to bless the 
holy day of rest, the good angel said: “May the 
next Sabbath and all following ones be like 
unto this; Peace unto this dwelling—peace!” 
and the bad angel, against his will, was com¬ 
pelled to say “Amen.” If, on the contrary, 
everything was in confusion, the bad angel re¬ 
joiced, and said: “May all your Sabbaths and 
week days be like this,” while the good angel 
wept and said “Amen.” According to the Tal¬ 
mud, when God was about to create man, great 
clamoring arose among the heavenly host. 
Some said: “Create, 0 God, a being who shall 
praise Thee on earth, even as we sing Thy glory 
in heaven.” Others said: “0 God, create no 
more! Man will destroy the glorious harmony 
which Thou hast set on earth, as in heaven.” 
0± a sudden, God turned to the contesting host 
of heaven, and deep silence fell upon them all. 
Then before the throne of glory there appeared 
bending the knee the Angel of Mercy, and he 
prayed, “0, Father, create man. He will be 


THE TALMUD. 


293 


Thine own noble image on earth. I will fill his 
heart with heavenly pity and sympathy toward 
all creatures; they will praise Thee through 
him.” And there appeared the Angel o-f Peace, 
and wept: “0, God, man will disturb Thine own 
peace. Blood will flow; he will invent war, 
confusion, horror. Thy place will be no longer 
in the midst of all Thy earthly works.” The 
Angel of Justice cried: “You will judge him, 
God! He shall be subject to my law, and peace 
shall again find a dwelling-place on earth.” 
The Angel of Truth said: “Father of Truth, 
cease! With men you create the lie.” Out of 
the deep silence then was heard the divine word: 
“You shall go with him—you, mine own Seal, 
truth; but you shall also remain a denizen of 
heaven—between heaven and earth you shall 
float, an everlasting link between both.” 

The question was asked in the Talmud, why 
children were born with their hands clinched, 
and men die with their hands wide open; and 
the answer was that on entering the world, man 
desired to grasp everything, but when he was 
leaving it all slipped away. Even as a fox, 
which saw a fine vineyard, and lusted after its 
grapes, but was too fat to get in through the 
only opening there was, until he had fasted 
three days. He then got in; but having fed, 


294 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


he could not get out, until he had fasted three 
days more. “Poor and naked man enters the 
world; poor and naked does he leave.” To 
woman the Talmud ascribed all the blessings of 
the household. From her emanated everything 
noble, wise, and true. It had not words enough 
to impress man with the absolute necessity of 
getting married. Not only was he said to be 
bereaved of peace, joy, comfort, and faith with¬ 
out a wife, but he was not even called a man. 
“Who is best taught?” it asked; and the answer 
is: “He who has learned first from his mother.” 

Alexander the Great was repeatedly spoken 
of in the Talmud. In his travels in the East, 
one day he wandered to the gate of Paradise, 
and knocked. The guardian angel asked: 
“Who is there?” 

“Alexander.” 

“Who is Alexander 

“Alexander, you know—the Alexander— 
Alexander the Great—conqueror of the world.” 

“We know him not—he cannot enter here. 
This is the Lord’s gate; only the righteous enter 
here.” Alexander begged something to show 
he had been there, and a small portion of a 
skull was given him. He took it away, and 
showed it contemptuously to his wise men, who 
brought a pair of scales and placing the bone in 


THE TALMUD. 


295 


one, Alexander put some of his silver and gold 
against it in the other; but the silver and gold 
“Kicked the beam.” More and more silver 
and gold were put into the scale and at last all 
his crown jewels and diadems were in, but they 
all flew upwards like feathers before the weight 
of the bone. Then one of the wise men took 
a grain of dust from the ground and placing it 
on the bone, the scale went up. The bone was 
that which surrounded the eye—and nothing 
will ever satisfy the eye, until grains of dust 
and ashes are placed upon it, down in the grave. 

In his travels Alexander came to Ethiopia, 
and a cause was decided in his presence by the 
king of that country. A man who had recently 
purchased land found a treasure upon it, which 
was claimed by the seller of the land. The 
king reconciled the rival claims by suggesting 
that the son of one of the men should marry the 
daughter of the other, and that the treasure be 
given as the dowry. Alexander was moody, 
and the King of Ethiopia asked: “Are you dis¬ 
satisfied with my judgment?” 

“Well,” Alexander said, “I am not dissatis¬ 
fied, I only know we should have judged 
differently in our country.” 

“How?” 

“We should, of course, have taken the treas- 


296 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

ure at once into the king’s exchequer, and both 
those men would have been beheaded on the 
spot.” The King of Ethiopia said: 

“Allow me to ask a question. Does the sun 
ever shine in your country?” 

“Of course.” 

“And does it ever rain?” 

“Certainly.” 

“Have you any cattle?” 

“Yes.” 

“Then that is the reason why the sun shines, 
and the rain rains—it can’t be for you.” 

The lecturer concluded by remarking that 
what he had been able to bring before the au¬ 
dience proved, as it were, but a drop in a vast 
ocean of the Talmud—that strange, wild, weird 
ocean, with its leviathans, and its wrecks of 
golden argosies, and with its forlorn bells that 
send up their dreamy sounds ever and anon, 
while the fisherman bends upon his oar, and 
starts and listens, and perchance the tears may 
come into his eyes. 

GEMS FROM THE TALMUD. 

The following specimens from the oft-ma¬ 
ligned Talmud were all literally translated by 
Emanuel Deutsch, from the Talmud itself: 

“Be thou the cursed, not he who curses. Be 


THE TALMUD. 


297 


of them that are persecuted, not of them that 
persecute. Look at Scripture; there is not a 
single bird more persecuted than the dove, yet 
God has chosen her to be offered up on his 
altar. The bull is hunted by the lion, the sheep 
by the wolf, the goat by the tiger. And God 
said: ‘Bring me a sacrifice, not from them that 
persecute but from them that are persecuted.’ 
We read (Ex. xvii. 11) that while in the contest 
with Amalek, Moses lifted up his arms, Israel 
prevailed. Did Moses’ hands make war or 
break war? But this is to tell you that as long 
as Israel are looking upward and humbling 
their hearts before their Father which is in 
heaven, they prevail; if not, they fall. In the 
same way you find (Num. xxi. 9), ‘And Moses 
made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole; 
and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten 
any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, 
he lived.’ Dost think that a serpent killeth or 
giveth life? But as long as Israel are looking 
upward to their Father which is in heaven they 
will live; if not, they will die. ‘Has God pleas¬ 
ure in the meat and blood of sacrifices?’ asks 
the prophet. No; He has not so much ordained 
as permitted them. It is for yourselves he 
says, not for me that you offer. Like a king, 
who sees his son carousing daily with all man- 


298 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


ner of evil companions. ‘You shall henceforth 
eat and drink entirely at your will at my own 
table,’ he says. 

“They offered sacrifices to demons and devils* 
for they love sacrificing, and could not do with¬ 
out it. And the Lord said: ‘Bring your offer¬ 
ings to Me, you shall then at least offer to the 
true God. Scripture ordains that the Hebrew 
slave who ‘loves’ his bondage, shall have his 
ear pierced against the doorpost. Why? be¬ 
cause it is that ear which heard on Sinai, ‘They 
are My servants, not servant’s servants.’ And 
this man voluntary throws away his precious 
freedom—Tierce his ear! He who sacrifices a 
whole offering shall be rewarded for a whole 
offering, he who offers a burnt-offering, shall 
have the reward of a burnt-offering, but he who 
offers humility unto God and man, shall be re¬ 
warded with a reward as if he had offered all 
the sacrifices in the world.’ The child loves its 
mother more than its father. It fears its father 
more than its mother. See how the Scriptures 
make the father precede the mother in the in¬ 
junction. ‘Thou shalt love thy father and 
mother,’ and the mother, when it says, ‘Honor 
thy father and mother!’ 

“Bless God for the good as well as the 
evil. When you hear of a death say: ‘Blessed 


THE TALMUD. 


299 


is the righteous judge.’ Even when the gates 
of heaven are shut to prayer, they are open to 
those of tears. Prayer is Israel’s only weapon, 
a weapon inherited from its fathers, a weapon 
tried in a thousand battles. When the right¬ 
eous dies, it is the earth that loses. The lost 
jewel will always be a jewel, but the possessor 
w 7 ho has lost it—well may he weep. Life is a 
passing shadow, says the Scripture. Is it the 
shadow of a tower, of a tree? A shadow that 
prevails for awhile? No, it is the shadow of a 
bird in its flight—away flies the bird and there 
is neither bird nor shadow. Repent one day 
before thy death. There was a king who bade 
all his servants to a great repast, but did not 
indicate the hour; some went home and put on 
their best garments and stood at the door of 
the palace; others said there is ample time, the 
king will let us. know beforehand. But the 
king summoned them of a sudden; and those 
that came in their best garments were well re¬ 
ceived, but the foolish ones, who came in their 
slovenliness, were turned away in disgrace. 
Repent to-day, lest to-morrow ye might be 
summoned. The aim and end of all wisdom 
are repentance and good works. Even the 
most righteous shall not attain to so high a 
place in heaven as the truly repentant. The 


300 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

reward of good works is like dates; sweet and 
ripening late. The dying benediction of a sage 
to his disciples was: ‘I pray for you that the 
fear of heaven maybe as strong upon you as the 
fear of man. You avoid sin before the face of 
the latter; avoid it before the face of the All- 
seeing.’ ‘If your God hates idolatry, why does 
he not destroy it?’ a heathen asked. And 
they answered him: Behold, they worship the 
sun, the moon, the stars; would you have him 
destroy this beautiful world for the sake of the 
foolish? If your God is a ‘friend of the poor,’ 
asked another, why does he not support them? 
Their case, a sage answered, is left in our 
hands, that we may thereby acquire merits and 
forgiveness of sin. But what a merit it is! the 
other replied; suppose I am angry with one of 
my slaves, and forbid him food and drink, and 
some one goes and gives it him furtively, shall 
I be much pleased! Not so, the other replied. 
Suppose you are wroth with your only son and 
imprison him without food, and some good man 
has pity on the child, and saves him from the 
pangs of hunger, would you be so very angry 
with the man? And we, if we are called ser¬ 
vants of God, are also called his children. He 
who has more learning than good works is like 
a tree with many branches and few roots, which 


THE TALMUD. 


301 


the first wind throws on its face; while he 
whose works are greater than his knowledge is 
like a tree with many roots and fewer branches, 
but which all the winds of heaven cannot up¬ 
root. 

“Love your wife like yourself, honor her 
more than yourself. Whosoever lives unmar¬ 
ried lives without joy, without comfort, with¬ 
out blessing. Descend a step in choosing a 
wife. If thy wife is small, bend down to her 
and whisper into her ear. He who forsakes the 
love of his youth, God’s altar weeps for him. 
He who sees his wife die before him has, as it 
were, been present at the destruction of the 
sanctuary itself—around him the world grows 
dark. It is women alone through whom God’s 
blessings are vouchsafed to a house. She 
teaches the children, speeds the husband to the 
place of worship and instruction, welcomes 
him when he returns, keeps the house godly 
and pure, and God’s blessings rest upon all 
these things. He who marries for money, his 
children shall be a curse to him. The house 
that does not open to the poor shall open to a 
physician. The birds in the air even despise 
the miser. He who gives charity in secret is 
greater than Moses himself. Honor the sons of 
the poor, it is they who bring science into 


302 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


splendor. Let the honor of thy neighbor be to 
thee like thine own. Rather be thrown into a 
fiery furnace than bring any one to public 
shame. Hospitality is the most important part 
of divine worship. There are three crowns: of 
the law, the priesthood, the kingship; but the 
crown of a good name is greater than them all. 
Iron breaks the stone, fire melts iron, water ex¬ 
tinguishes fire, the clouds drink up the water, 
a storm drives away the clouds, man withstands 
the storm, fear unmans man, wine dispels fear, 
sleep drives away wine, and death sweeps all 
away—even sleep. But Solomon the wise says : 
‘ Charity saves from death.’ How can you escape 
sin? Think of three things: whence thou 
comest, whither thou goest, and to whom thou 
wilt have to account for all thy deeds; even to 
the King of Kings, the All Holy, praised be He. 
Four shall not enter Paradise: the scoffer, the 
liar, the hypocrite, and the slanderer. To 
slander is to murder. The cock and the owl 
both await the daylight. The light says the 
cock, brings delight to me, but what are you 
waiting for? When the thief has no opportun¬ 
ity for stealing, he considers himself an honest 
man. If thy friends agree in calling thee an 
ass, go and get a halter around thee. Thy 
friend has a friend, and thy friend’s friend has 


THE TALMUD. 


303 


a friend: be discreet. The dog sticks to you 
on account of the crumbs in thy pocket. The 
camel wanted to have horns, and they took 
away his ears. The soldiers fight, and the 
kings are the heroes. The thief invokes God 
while he breaks into the house. The woman 
of sixty will run after music like one of six. 
After the thief runs the theft; after the beggar 
poverty. While thy foot is shod, smash the 
thorn. When the ox is down, many are the 
butchers. Descend a step in choosing a wife, 
mount a step in choosing a friend. If there is 
anything bad about you, say it yourself. Luck 
makes rich, luck makes wise. Beat the gods, 
and the priests will tremble. Were it not for the 
existence of passions, no one would build a 
house, marry a wife, beget children, or do any 
work. The sun will go down all by himself, 
without your assistance. Fools are no proof. 
No man is to be made responsible for words 
which he utters in his grief. One eats, another 
says grace. He who is ashamed will not easily 
commit sin. There is a great difference be 
tween him who is ashamed before his own self 
and him who is only ashamed before others. It 
is a good sign in man to be capable of being 
ashamed. One contrition in man’s heart is bet¬ 
ter than many flagellations. If our ancestors 


304 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


were like angels, we are like men; if our ances¬ 
tors were like men, we are like asses. Do not 
live near a pious fool. If you wish to hang 
yourself, choose a big tree. Rather eat onions 
and sit in the shadow, and do not eat geese and 
poultry if it makes thy heart uneasy within 
thee. A small stater (coin) in a large jar makes 
a big noise. A myrtle, even in a desert, re¬ 
mains a myrtle. When the pitcher falls upon 
the stone, woe unto the pitcher; when the stone 
falls upon the pitcher, woe unto the pitcher; 
whatever befalls, woe unto the pitcher. Even 
if the bull have his head deep in the trough, 
hasten upon the roof, and drag the ladder after 
you. Get your living by skinning carcases in 
the street if you cannot otherwise, and do not 
say, I am a priest, I am a great man; this work 
would not befit my dignity. Youth is a garland 
of roses, age is a crown of thorns. Use a noble 
vase even for one day—let it break to-morrow. 
The last thief is hanged first. Teach thy 
tongue to say, I do not know. The heart of our 
first ancestors was as large as the gate of the 
temple, that of the later ones like that of the 
next large one; ours is like the eye of a needle. 
Drink not, and you will not sin. Not what you 
say about yourself, but what others say. Not 
the place honors the man, but the man the 


THE TALMUD. 


305 


place. The cat and rat make peace over a car¬ 
cass. A dog away from his native kennel dares 
not bark for seven years. He who walks daily 
over his estates finds a little coin each time. 
He who humiliates himself will be lifted up; he 
who raises himself up will be humiliated. 
Whosoever runs after greatness, greatness runs 
way from him; he who runs away from great¬ 
ness, greatness follows him. He who curbs 
his wrath, his sins will be forgiven. Whoso¬ 
ever does not persecute them that persecute 
him, whosoever takes an offense in silence, he 
who does good because of love, he who is cheer¬ 
ful under his suffering—they are the friends of 
God, and of them the Scripture says, ‘And they 
shall shine forth as does the sun at noonday.’ 
Pride is like idolatry. Commit a sin twice, and 
you will think it perfectly allowable. When the 
end of a man is come everybody lords it over 
him. While our love was strong, we lay on the 
edge of a sword; now it is no longer strong, a 
sixty-yard-wide bed is too narrow for us. A 
Galilean said: ‘When the shepherd is angry 
with his flock he appoints to it a blind-wether.’ 
The day is short and the work is great; but the 
laborers are idle, though the reward be great, 
and the master of the work presses. It is not 
incumbent upon thee to complete the work: but 


306 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

thou must not therefore cease from it. If thou 
hast worked much, great shall be thy reward: 
for the master who employed thee is faithful in 
his payment. But know that the true reward is 
not of this world.” 


Prejudice Against the Jew. 


Jews claim to be measured by the standard of other com¬ 
munities. They do not covet undue commendation; but they 
emphatically protest against depreciation. They do not desire to 
be thought better than they actually are. Jews are but human 
creatures, and, therefore, like other human creatures, they are of 
necessity subject to the infirmities, frailties and errors common 
to humanity. They desire to be spoken of as they are, that 
nothing in their character and conduct shall be extenuated, nor 
aught set down to them in malice. Having endured from the 
wickedness and injustice of mankind more than eighteen centu¬ 
ries of suffering; having, more particularly in the barbarous 
Middle Ages, been subjected to every conceivable phase of wrong 
and misery; to oppressive and restrictive laws; to usurious im¬ 
posts from royal and noble robbers; to the exceptional disad¬ 
vantage of being forced for many ages to pursue, in order to sus¬ 
tain life, many avocations calculated to degrade and depress the 
human character, it should strike all men of an impartial and un¬ 
fettered judgment, who reflect seriously on the subject and take 
into unprejudiced consideration the tremendous post-biblical 
history of the Jewish nation, as bordering almost on the miracu¬ 
lous, that modem Jews should have emerged from so terrible 
a state of racial adversity and degradation with so bright and 
promising an aspect as they actually present. None but a 
divinely protected people could have done so! It is an unanswer¬ 
able demonstration to persistent traducers of the Jewish people 
that they are an indestructible race, and destined, moreover, to 
develop in the undefined future, the yet unrealized glorious de¬ 
signs of the Eternal. 

To crush, much less to extirpate, the Jews, a people whom 
God graciously selected from all other nations as “His peculiar 
treasure ”—sinful though they have been—has repeatedly been 
proved by the experience of more than eighteen centuries to be 
impossible!— Charles Kensington Salaman. 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 


309 


CHAPTER XIII. 

PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 

The Jew has given to the world the knowl¬ 
edge of the only true and living God. He has 
given Moses, who in the twelve United States 
of Israel gave to the world the first Republic, 
and whose laws after thirty-three hundred years 
still form the basis of the civilized world's juris¬ 
prudence. Our Bible, both the Old and New 
Testaments, were written by Jews. What 
would the world have been without the Bible? 
The countries which are indisputably the fore¬ 
most and most enlightened among the nations 
are Bible nations. Where the Bible prevails in¬ 
telligence rules. In every country where the 
Bible does not rule you find man in a semi-bar- 
barous condition. The most highly civilized 
and most intelligent people, the most just and 
reasonable laws, are to be found only in those 
countries where the Jewish Bible rules. Where 
there is no Bible there is no liberty. To it we 
owe more for our liberty and civilization than to 


310 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


any other source or power. Ours is the only 
flag that has in reality written upon it: “Liberty, 
Fraternity, Equality,” and this great Republic 
was founded by Bible believers. This book of the 
Jews, translated 1604-11, spread through England 
and inspired the revolt against Charles I. in 1642. 
Its “To your tents, 0, Israel,” quickened the 
Puritans into action, and its inspiration caused 
them to ride into battle singing its psalms. It 
was the Bible which lifted the people of Europe 
up to a civilized condition and made nations of 
them. All the beneficent changes in the world 
have occurred under the dominion of the Bible. 
The Reformation, one of the sublimest uprisings 
in the whole history of the human race, which 
developed the human mind, promoted civiliza¬ 
tion, liberalized men, destroyed in a measure 
superstition, revolutionized religious belief and 
changed the forms of governments, was the out¬ 
growth of the study of the Bible, the philosoph¬ 
ical writings and the teachings of the Spanish, 
Italian and Sicilian universities whose teachers 
were Jews or pupils of the Jews, the Arabs. 

Liberty finds her only place of abode in Bible 
countries. It thrives upon the Bible. Its sus¬ 
tenance is the Bible. Liberty worships at its 
august shrine and bows with imperial grandeur 
before its majestic throne. Mark what even 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 311 

Theodore Parker, as truthfully as strangely 
from his view-point, says on this subject: “The 
literature of Greece, which goes up like incense 
from that land of temples and heroic deeds, has 
not half the influence of this book from a nation 
alike despised in ancient and modern times. It 
is read in all the tens of thousands of pulpits of 
our land. In all the temples of Christendom is 
its voice lifted up week by week. The sun 
never sets on its gleaming pages. It goes 
equally to the cottage of the plain man and the 
palace of the king. It is woven into the litera¬ 
ture of the world and colors the talk of the 
street. The bark of the merchant cannot sail 
the sea without it; no ship of war goes to con¬ 
flict but the Bible is there. It enters men’s 
closets, mingles in all the griefs and cheerful¬ 
ness of life. The affianced maiden prays God 
in Scripture for help in her new duties; men are 
married by Scripture. The Bible attends them 
in their sickness and when the fever of the 
world is on them. The aching head finds a softer 
pillow when the Bible lies underneath. The 
mariner escaping from shipwreck clutches this 
first of his treasures, and keeps it sacred to 
God. It goes with the peddler in his crowded 
pack; cheers him at eventide when he sits down 
dusty and fatigued; brightens the freshness of 


312 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW 


his morning face. It blesses us when we are 
born, gives names to half Christendom, rejoices 
with us, has sympathy for our mourning, tem¬ 
pers our grief to finer issues. It is the better 
part of our sermons. It lifts man above him¬ 
self; our best of uttered prayers are in its 
storied speech, wherewith our fathers and our 
patriarchs prayed. The timid man about awak¬ 
ing from this dream of life looks through the 
glass of Scripture and his eye grows bright; 
he does not fear to stand alone, to tread the 
way unknown and distant, to take the death- 
angel by the hand, and bid farewell to wife and 
babes and home. Men rest on this their dearest 
hopes. It tells them of God and of His blessed 
Son—of earthly duties and of heavenly rest.” 

Thank God for the Bible! Thank God for the 
Jews who carried the Bible to us! 

JESUS A JEW. 

In the language of Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf, 
“Jesus, who is worshipped by one-half of the 
civilized world as the saviour of mankind, as 
the Prince of Peace, who came on earth to end 
all strife and discord, to eradicate all wrong 
from the hearts of men, and to plant in its 
stead universal peace and eternal good will—this 
Jesus, who commands such veneration the 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 313 

"whole world over, who came on earth with so 
noble a mission, whose natal day is celebrated 
even after the lapse of eighteen centuries with 
so much joyousness, the breathing of whose 
very name casts a spell of holiness over the 
human heart, and the story of whose life is an 
inspiration to the despairing, a light to the 
erring, a comfort to the sorrowing, a rest to the 
heavy-laden—this Jesus was: A Jew.” 

DID THE JEWS CRUCIFY CHRIST? 

The Irishman who whipped the Jew, when 
asked why he did so, replied: “That man is a 
Jew.” 

“Well, what of that?” 

“The Jews,” replied the Irishman, “killed 
Christ.” 

“Yes, but that was more than eighteen hun¬ 
dred years ago.” 

“Well, never mind,” said the Irishman, “I 
only heard of it to-day.” A similar intellectual 
narrowness is the average mark of our boasted 
culture. The unhappy actors in that scene were 
both Jews and Gentiles. In the light of orthodox 
Christian teaching the Jews had no option in the 
matter. The shadow of doom was upon them 
from the beginning of days and the growing 
sense of this truth ought, among fair-minded 


314 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


Christians, who believe so, make Jewish blame 
for the crucifixion a dead issue. 

The rulers who were Romans, and not the lead¬ 
ers of the Jews, were responsible for the cruci¬ 
fixion of Christ, but in any case how could it 
be the act of the entire nation? The Jews were 
then as now scattered throughout the known 
world. It is related that when Sir Moses Monte- 
fiore was taunted by a political opponent with the 
memory of Calvary and described him as one who 
sprang from the murderers who crucified the 
world’s Redeemer, the next morning the Jewish 
philanthropist, whom Christendom has learned 
to honor, called upon his assailant, and showed 
him the record of his ancestors which had been 
kept for two thousand years, and which showed 
that their home had been in Spain for two hun¬ 
dred years before Jesus of Nazareth was born! 

The common people heard Christ gladly. 
The multitude writhing beneath the Roman 
yoke desired to take him by force and make 
him king, and when at last through the treach¬ 
ery of his own disciple he was arrested by the 
Romans at midnight, and after a hurried and 
illegal* trial, during which the mob was per- 


* The trial of Jesus, as described in the Gospel, is wholly illegal 
from the standpoint of Jewish procedure in criminal law. It 
was illegal because held in the house of Caiaphas, the high- 



PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 


315 


suaded to cry for his blood, by nine o’clock the 
next morning he was crucified upon a Roman 
cross. The three thousand who believed in a 
single day on Pentecost, and the great multitude 
of priests who were obedient to the faith were 
Jews. All the apostles were Jews. The Tem¬ 
ple and the synagogues were the first preaching 
places. Christianity was planted in Europe and 
Asia by Jews. In the language of Benjamin 

priest. All trials could be held only in the regular courtroom in 
the precincts of the Temple, called “ Lischath Hagazzith.” The 
trial was held at night. No trial, according to Jewish law, 
could be held at night. In the Gospel account, there is no record 
of the inspiring and beautiful charge to witness in a criminal 
case, as prescribed in the Mishna, or code-book, to remind them 
of the awful solemnity of such an occasion as testifying against 
a man’s life. 

“The care taken of human life was extreme indeed. The 
judges of capital offences had to fast all day, nor was the sentence 
executed on the day of the verdict, but it was once more subjected 
to scrutiny of the Sanhedrin the next day.” 

There is no record in the Gospel account of the trial of Jesus 
of any “care taken of human life”—for all was hastily done or 
it would not have been done in the night. Nor did the judges 
fast. Worse breach still of Jewish law and practice, the 
sentence was executed on the same day, for Friday began at sun¬ 
set on Thursday, just as Sabbath began on Friday evening. And 
the sentence was not subjected to scrutiny by the Sanhedrin a 
second time. Indeed, it is impossible that it was subjected to 
the Sanhedrin at all, for how could all the members have been 
assembled in the night? 

No Jew was ever executed on the eve of a Festival. Jesus 
was executed by the Romans on the eve of Passover. 

Crucifixion is an illegal method of death penalty according to 
Jewish law. It was the Roman method of punishment. Jewish 
law recognizes four methods of capital punishment. Crucifixion 
is not one. — H. Pereira Mendes. 



316 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


Disraeli: “It is, no doubt, to be deplored that 
seven millions of the Jewish race should persist 
in believing only a part of their religion; but 
this is largely owing to the nature of the perse¬ 
cution they received. When the great mass of 
the Jews, scattered throughout the world, first 
ever heard of Christianity, it appeared to be a 
Gentile religion, accompanied by idolatrous 
practices. And afterward, when Romans and 
Spaniards were converted to Christianity, all 
bhat the Jews in those nations knew of Chris¬ 
tianity was, that it was a religion of fire and 
sword, and that one of its first duties was to 
avenge some mysterious and inexplicable crime 
which had been committed years ago by some 
unheard-of ancestors of theirs in an unknown 
land. These people had never heard of Christ. 
What they had heard from their savage com¬ 
panions, and the Italian priesthood which acted 
on them, was that there was good tidings for all 
the world except Israel; and that Israel, for the 
commission of a great crime of which they had 
never heard, and could not comprehend, was to 
be plundered, massacred, hewn to pieces, and 
burned alive in the name of Christ, and for the 
sake of Christianity. Is it, therefore, wonder¬ 
ful that a great portion of the Jewish race 
should not believe in the most important por- 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW, 317 

tion of the Jewish religion?” But suppose 
Jews did help Christ’s death, is it fair to lay 
the deed of a few of his ancestors against the 
Jew and his descendants down to the sixtieth 
generation? Would the Jews have put Jesus 
Christ to death had they believed Him to be the 
Messiah? Hear Paul: “Which none of the 
princes of the world knew; for, had they 
known it they would not have crucified the 
Lord of glory.” 

Listen to Jesus on the cross: “Father, forgive 
them (the Romans and Jews alike), for they 
know not what they do.” Is it not time that 
we forgive and forget what Christ forgave eight¬ 
een hundred years ago? The Jew rejects Christ, 
but believes in the Messiah. Who shall say now 
that his faith, like Abraham’s, shall not be 
“accounted unto him for righteousness?” 

Can we wonder when we read how the blood¬ 
thirsty fanatics and tyrants of so-called Chris¬ 
tendom, who had never learned the doctrine 
that Jesus taught, scattered and slaughtered, 
hunted and hated, banished and robbed the 
Jews, can we wonder that the latter refused to 
embrace a religion the representatives of which 
instigated and committed the crimes and bar¬ 
barities which stain the pages of history. To 
quote Benjamin Disraeli again: 


318 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


“Perhaps, in this enlightened age, as his mind 
expands, and he takes a comprehensive view of 
this period of progress, the pupil of Moses may 
ask himself whether all the princes of the 
house of David have done so much for the Jews 
as the prince who was crucified on Calvary. 
Had it not been for Him, the Jews would have 
been comparatively unknown, or known only as 
a high Oriental caste which had lost its country. 
Has not he made their history the most famous 
history in the world? Has not he hung up their 
laws in every temple? Has not he avenged the 
victims of Titus and conquered the Caesars? 
What successes did they anticipate from their 
Messiah? The wildest dreams of their rabbins 
have been far exceeded. Has not Jesus con¬ 
quered Europe and changed its name into 
Christendom? All countries that refuse the 
cross wither, while the whole of the new world 
is devoted to the Semitic principle and its most 
glorious offspring, the Jewish faith; and the 
time will come when the vast communities and 
countless myriads of America and Australia, 
looking upon Europe as Europe now looks upon 
Greece, and wondering how so small a place 
could have achieved such great deeds, will still 
find music in the songs of Zion, and still seek 
solace in the parables of Galilee.” 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 


319 


THE LONGEVITY OF THE JEWS. 

Next to the Quakers* the Jews are the longest- 
lived people on the globe. Reliable statistics 
justify the conclusion of the learned French 
physician, Dr. M. Levy, that while the average 
term of life among the Gentiles is twenty-six 
years, among the Jews it is thirty-seven. Neuf- 

* While the average length of human life in all countries is 
about twenty-eight years, and one-fourth of all who die do not 
reach the age of seven, one-half dying before they reach the age 
of seventeen; yet the average life of the Friends living in Great 
Britain, in 1860, was fifty-nine years. A few years since, the 
dram-sellers of Great Britain, indignant at their failure to obtain 
life insurance at ordinary rates, organized a company of their 
own, and insured themselves; but such was the enormous death- 
rate among their membership that the concern was soon forced 
into bankruptcy. On the other hand, in the Society of Friends, 
who, in the simplicity of their ordinary life may be supposed to 
conform more closely to Christian precepts than most religious 
bodies, insurance companies exist whose tables show that the 
average lifetime, or “expectation of life’' at birth is, in the case 
of a male Friend, 45.34 years, the mean average of the general 
public being 40.86 years. In the case of females, the difference 
was less, that of the Friends being 45.72 and that of the general 
public 42.16. But the average age of Friends proves to be higher 
than this, it having varied in recent years from slightly over 
fifty-one years to fifty-eight years. A summary and analysis of 
the ages of deceased members, extending for more than thirty 
years, shows that out of 940 deaths there were 163 persons under 
the age of thirty at death; 224 deaths between the ages of thirty 
and sixty; 517 who died between the ages of sixty and ninety; 
and 39 who died at the age of ninety or above, five being reputed 
centenarians. 

Such facts seem to indicate that however the racial energy of 
the Israelites tends to prolong life, results equally marked can be 
reached in people of other lineage, by observance of the princi¬ 
ples contained in the Gospel, through successive generations.— 
H. L. Hastings. 



320 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


ville’s investigations in Frankfurt showed the 
same result. The life insurance companies who 
have made the collation of statistics a profes¬ 
sion as the basis of commercial computation 
will tell you that the life of the average Jew is 
more than forty per cent, more valuable that 
that of any other people, except the Quakers. 

In 1348, when the black death was raging- 
throughout Europe, the Jews were exempt from 
the plague, and were accused of poisoning the 
wells of Christians, and under inhuman tortures 
the Jews were forced to confess themselves 
guilty of the crime charged against them, and 
then were burned alive by the thousands. 
Why are the Jews so much less subject to con¬ 
sumption, cholera, croup, typhus, and scrof¬ 
ula? Is it not on account of their obedience to 
the divine law? The Gentile eats the pork for¬ 
bidden the Jews, and finds himself saturated 
with humors, infested with tapeworms, per¬ 
meated with wriggling trichinas.* So long as 
it is sometimes necessary to kill a dozen hogs 
before a pair of sound lungs can be found, it 
does not seem strange that consumption is so 
prevalent among the eaters of swine. Under 

*From June, 1891, to January, 1892, of the 544,625 hogs ex¬ 
amined at the great packing centers under the U. S. insnect^on 
law, nearly two per cent, were affected with trichinae. 



PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 321 

Jewish usages the lungs of beasts slaughtered 
for food are carefully examined by the shochet or 
killer, and if the slightest evidences of lung dis¬ 
ease are observed, the lungs are placed in a ves¬ 
sel of water, and if bubbles arise, indicating the 
slightest defect in the lungs which allow the air 
to escape into the water, the carcass is con¬ 
demned as diseased and unclean, and turned 
over to the Gentiles. In a report made to the 
Jewish authorities, and quoted by Dr. K. K. 
Picard, the following figures occurred: Oxen 
slain, 12,473; kosher, or fit to be eaten, 7,649; 
calves slain, 2,146; kosher, 1,569; sheep slain, 
23,022; kosher, 14,580. In plain English, nearly 
one-half of the animals killed are rejected as un¬ 
fit for human food. 

The Paris Temps , in a critique of an article 
written by Henry Behrend for the Nineteenth 
Century , advocates the adoption of the Tal¬ 
mudic prescriptions as to food, particularly as 
to meat, which through its proneness to become 
tuberculous, becomes the cause possibly of 
more diseases than all other agencies combined. 
The Temps , after a discussion of the facts pre¬ 
sented by Mr. Behrend, says: 

“All these facts are evidently of a nature to 
call the attention of hygienists to the Talmudic 
dietary regulations, and there is no reason why 


322 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


the Jewish methods of slaughtering, indorsed, 
as they are, by the experience of so many cen¬ 
turies and now by the authority of contempo¬ 
raneous science, should not become regulations 
of general observance. We have surely bor¬ 
rowed already from the Israelitish civilization 
more than one custom, less profitable and less 
justified.”* 

THE JEWS A LAW-ABIDING PEOPLE. 

The prison hardly knows of the existence of 
the Jew. Governor Vance, of North Carolina, 
when pardoning the only Hebrew in the North 
Carolina penitentiary, who was serving a ten 
years’ sentence for manslaughter, indorsed on 

* That Jewish longevity is helped by the care taken in the 
preparation of food is certain. It should be stated here that in 
slaughtering according to the Jewish method, the death of the 
animal is made practically painless by the extraordinary 
precautions prescribed, and any infringement of any one renders 
the whole carcass unfit for food, or Trefa, according to Jewish 
law. The maximum amount of blood is withdrawn by the 
method of cutting the neck and arteries. That blood is vigor¬ 
ously forbidden. No blood disease of the animal can therefore 
be communicated to an observant Jew. When the meat is 
retailed, no sooner does it reach the house than it is thoroughly 
soaked. Coagulated blood is thus removed. It is kept in salt for 
at least half an hour. The salt or chloride of sodium, is an excellent 
germicide and effectually kills any germ which may have 
chanced to lodge on the meat in its passage from the slaughter¬ 
house to the retailer and from him to the consumer. It is then 
carefully washed, and only then is declared ready for cooking. 
Jews are prone to nervous disorders due to their high nervous 
organizations and mental activity. 




PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 323 

the document these words: “I take pleasure in 
saying that I sign the pardon in part as recogni¬ 
tion of the good and law-abiding character of our 
Jewish citizens, this being the first serious case 
brought to my notice on the part of that people.” 

Judge Briggs, of Philadelphia, in sentencing a 
Jew to prison for burglary said: “You are the 
first Israelite I have ever seen convicted of 
crime.” No Jew was convicted of murder in 
the United States, during the first century of 
the Nation’s existence. In a speech delivered 
at a Hebrew fair in Boston, General B. F. Butler 
said: “For forty years, save one, I have been 
conversant with the criminal courts of Massa¬ 
chusetts and many other States, and I have 
never yet had a Hebrew client as a criminal. 
But, you may say, that was because the He¬ 
brews did not choose you for their lawyer. But 
this is not the true answer; for I never yet saw 
a veritable Israelite in the prisoner’s box, for 
crime, in my life. And, thinking of this matter 
as I was coming here, I met a learned judge in 
one of the highest courts of the commonwealth, 
of more than forty years’ experience at the bar 
and bench, and I put the same question to him, 
and he bore witness with me to the same effect. 
He neither at the bar or on the bench had ever 
seen any Hebrew arraigned for crime.” 


324 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


When Mordecai M. Noah, on his accession to 
the office of sheriff of New York, was taunted 
with the remark: “Pity Christians have to be 
hung by a Jew!” to which he promptly replied: 
“Pity Christians require hanging at all.” 

THE JEW IN CHARITY. 

In charity not only do the names of Sir 
Moses Montefiore, Baron and Baroness de 
Hirsch, Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, and Mrs. Es¬ 
ther Hermann shine conspicuously, but our 
Jewish fellow-citizens successfully conduct 
charities covering every conceivable case of 
need and suffering. In New York City alone, 
for their twelve leading institutions, the Jews 
contribute upward of seven hundred thousand 
dollars a year. The Russian immigration which 
began in 1881 compelled special measures of 
relief to be organized, and of their successful 
conduct, Dr. Charles S. Bernheimer, in Self 
Culture for February, 1899, wrote: 

“As a temporary expedient, the Russian Emi¬ 
grant Relief Fund was originated in 1881. It 
was succeeded in the same year by the Hebrew 
Emigrant Aid Society of the United States, 
which was established in New York City, but 
received the co-operation of organizations in 
the other principalities. About two million 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 325 

dollars were expended by this organiza¬ 
tion in the work of receiving, sheltering, 
temporarily maintaining and distributing 
through the United States and Canada, the 
Eussian Jewish refugees. Many were the ani¬ 
mated and picturesque, yet pitiful scenes 
afforded by the arrival of the downtrodden and 
persecuted Jews, being cared for by thousands 
of their co-religionists of America. 

“With the renewed severity of the Eussian 
persecutions, and the consequent further influx 
of immigrants in the early nineties, general 
movements for the relief of the refugees were 
organized. Early in 1891 the Jewish Alliance of 
America, composed largely of Eussians, was 
formed at a convention held in Philadelphia. 
Its aim was to establish branches in a number 
of cities, for the purpose of distributing the im¬ 
migrant population. Later in the same year, 
another organization, the American Committee 
for Ameliorating the Condition of the Eussian 
Eefugees, was formed in New York City for a 
similar purpose, in response to a call issued to 
the Jewish societies of the United States by the 
Baron de Hirsch Trust. The following year, the 
Jewish Alliance and the executive committee of 
the other organization, which had been given 
plenary power, coalesced, and the work which 


326 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

had been outlined by them soon devolved 
upon the Baron de Hirsch Fund, and the United 
Hebrew Charities of New York. 

“Between 1889 and 1891 a plan was under 
consideration, between Baron de Hirsch and 
those who were to become the trustees of his 
fund, with reference to the proposition of the 
former, to devote ten thousand dollars per 
month for the amelioration of the Kussian and 
Eastern European immigrants. In 1891 a deed 
of trust was executed by which the sum of two 
million four hundred thousand dollars was 
placed as capital in the hands of the trustees of 
the Baron de Hirsch Fund, the interest of which 
was to be used for the education and training 
of emigrants from Bussia and Eastern Europe. 
Among the provisions was authority to disburse 
two hundred and forty thousand dollars of the 
capital for acquiring and improving land, allot¬ 
ting farm holdings, and erecting buildings for 
manual and agricultural training and general 
education. The income of the fund, $100,000 
per annum, is used in sustaining an agricultural 
colony founded in 1893 at Woodbine, New Jer¬ 
sey, and the schools established there; a trade 
school and English classes established in New 
York City, an employment, transportation, and 
relief bureau in connection with the United He- 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 327 

brew Charities of New York City, and public 
baths (Hon. A. S. Solomons is the efficient gen* 
eral manager). In addition, local committees in 
Philadelphia,Baltimore,Boston and St. Louis re¬ 
ceived sums for similar work in connection with 
employment, transportation, relief, and educa¬ 
tion. To some of the several hundred Russian 
Jewish farmers who bought abandoned farms in 
the New England States, the fund made loans 
on bond and mortgage upon a strict business 
basis. It assisted colonies which were in need 
in Dakota, Colorado, Michigan, and other States. 
It has made loans also to students to enable 
them to complete their college course. 

“The Baroness de Hirsch has since supple¬ 
mented the work of her husband, who died in 
1896. She has made a gift of one hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, which has enabled the 
trustees to proceed with the erection of a build¬ 
ing for the trade schools in New York. She 
has promised to send one million dollars toward 
the work of ameliorating the condition of the 
congested Russian and Eastern European popu¬ 
lation in New York City. The first instalment 
of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars has 
already been received for this purpose, though 
the trustees, we believe, have not yet decided 
in what manner to utilize the money. The 
baroness has, moreover, established the Clara 


328 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


de Hirsch Home for Working Girls. She has 
donated two hundred thousand dollars for the 
erection of a building, and has provided for a 
regular income of twelve thousand dollars per 
annum. The purpose of the home is to benefit 
workgirls and other unmarried women depend¬ 
ent on their own exertions for a livelihood, to 
fit others for domestic and industrial occupa¬ 
tions, to aid them in obtaining employment, and 
to assist them in other ways. 

“But the munificence of the Baron and Baron¬ 
ess de Hirsch, while a magnificent part of the 
present Jewish charity and philanthropic work 
of the United States, must not overshadow the 
splendid results achieved independently by in¬ 
dividuals and communities. When one considers 
that about half a million Kussian and Eastern 
European Jewish immigrants have arrived in this 
country since the Bussian persecutions of 1881* 


* The following record of arrivals of Jewish immigrants at the 
port of New York, from October 1, 1884, to October 1, 1897, 
is furnished by the late manager of the United Hebrew Charities, 
Mr. N. S. Rosenau:— 


1884-85. 

.18,535 

1891-92. 

.52,134 

1885-86. 

..27,348 

1892-93. 

.25,678 

1886-87. 

..25,788 

1893-94. 

.16,381 

1887-88. 

.29,602 

1894-95. 

.27,065 

1888-89. 

.22,674 

1895-96. 

.23,802 

1889-90. 

.32,321 

1896-97. 

.16,420 

1890-91. 

.62,574 

1897-98. 

. ...21,070 

Total. 



.401,392 


If to the above number a rough estimate of the arrivals prev- 




















PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 329 

and that the number of Jews in this country 
just before that time was estimated to be about 
a quarter of a million, the enormous task which 
those resident in the United States have had 
set for them may be conceived. The task was 
the greater when it is remembered that the im¬ 
migrants have come to this side with strange 
language and manners, many without trade or 
knowledge that could be adapted for use; they 
have had to be thoroughly taken in hand, their 
personal appearance made presentable, abodes 
found for them, and occupations secured. This 
process has been going on during two decades. 
Plans are being gradually systematized by 
which they can become self-supporting, intelli¬ 
gent citizens. But the process is slow, pre¬ 
senting as it does many difficulties, among 
which not the least is the congesting of the im¬ 
migrants in the large cities,* * leading to unsani¬ 
tary lives. 

ious to 1884 (of which no accurate record was kept) is added, 
together with the arrivals at other seaports and by way of 
Canada, it will be readily understood that half a million Jewish 
immigrants have become part of the population of this country 
since 1881. 

* Mr. Myer S. Isaacs, in an article descriptive of the work of 
the Baron de Hirsch Fund, in the New York Herald of June 20, 
1897, states: “The ‘congested’ section of New York City, in 
which dwell as many as 50,000 to 75,000 Jews of Russian or Polish 
birth or parentage, who have not yet placed themselves in a 
position to be independent of their surroundings, is bounded by 
the Bowery, Houston and Canal Streets and the East River.” 



330 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

“The Baron de Hirsch Fund has under con¬ 
sideration, as has been stated, the problem of 
withdrawing the immigrants from the most con¬ 
gested quarters. Its founding of the Woodbine 
colony was one step in that direction. The for¬ 
mation of the colonies of Alliance, Rosenhayn, 
and Carmel, in New Jersey, which were aided by 
gifts and loans from citizens and communities 
of the Eastern States; the establishment of 
colonies in the Western States, similarly aided 
by individuals in that section of the country; 
the transportation of settlers to small commu¬ 
nities throughout the country are marks of the 
endeavor to solve the problem of the too great 
hiving together in the cities. It is important to 
n^te in this connection that the number of 
places to which immigrants are forwarded from 
the ports at which they arrive is increasing year 
by year. The attempts at agricultural coloni¬ 
zation have not been successful, in the sense 
that a majority of the settlers have become 
self-supporting farmers. Not being a picked 
class, nor composed of sturdy out-of-door people, 
the settlers, meeting one or the other unfavor¬ 
able conditions of soil or climate, which pioneers 
often encounter, have been weakened in their 
efforts to build up colonies. 

“It can thus be readily understood that the 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 331 

Jewish charities throughout the United States 
must have strongly felt the influence of the im¬ 
migration, and that it must have given rise to 
special agencies for aiding the immigrants; in 
fact, there would have been comparatively 
little need for the charities without this immi¬ 
gration. 

“However, we see evidence that the immi¬ 
grants, as they are improving their own mate¬ 
rial condition, are now beginning to assist their 
fellow-countrymen. A number of charity so¬ 
cieties, composed altogether of Russian and 
Slavic Jews, have been formed in the large 
cities, and with their expansion the problems of 
the charity societies will be less difficult.” The 
almshouse has no need to provide for the Jew. 
If one Jew gets into trouble all the others stand 
by him. The divorce court seldom hears of 
him. He is domestic above all men. Drunken¬ 
ness is not a Jewish vice. The only occupation 
that does not thrive among the Jews is that of 
the saloon keeper. To the Potter’s Field the Jew 
is absolutely unknown. With the Jews next to 
the respect for the living comes the veneration 
for the dead. In one of the Boston papers some 
years ago appeared the following item: 

“iKEY ROSENBERG DEAD.” 

“Some months ago, as one of the great ocean 


332 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


steamers was plying toward the American 
shores, and after having left the English coast 
about twenty-four hours or so, it was suddenly 
discovered by those on board that a small pas¬ 
senger who was not on the list was aboard. No 
one had seen the youngster during the first day 
out, and it was only upon the break of the 
second that he emerged from his hiding-place. 
He had no father, no mother, no relatives or 
friends aboard, and was absolutely without pro¬ 
tection. The ship being at sea, the stowaway 
couldn’t be put off, and being of a most genial 
disposition and nature, he in the short time that 
he mingled with the passengers, won their good 
will; he thus excited their pity and a number 
of the passengers determined to care for the 
little chap, and adopt him for the time being. 
During the voyage the passengers as well as the 
officers and crew became attached to the little 
waif, and the captain determined to see to it 
w r hen they reached shore that he should be 
taken care of and a home found for him. Upon 
the arrival of the steamer at Boston, the captain 
turned the youngster over to the police, ex¬ 
plaining to them that he had come aboard, and 
was without relations or friends to claim him, 
and detailing his good qualities. At the police 
station the officers became so much interested 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 333 

in Ikey Rosenberg, for that was the name they 
gave him, that the entire squad determined to 
adopt him and bring him up. ‘Ikey’ was made 
to feel that he was at home, and before a great 
while was a general favorite with every officer 
and attache in the station from captain down to 
doorkeeper. Besides ‘Ikey’ made himself gen¬ 
erally useful. He arose early and awoke the 
officers at the proper hour, and if perchance 
some slept delinquently he wouldn’t rest until 
they got up. The discipline of the force, so far 
as early rising was concerned, became admi¬ 
rable, all owing to ‘Ikey’s’ watchfulness. Be¬ 
sides ‘Ikey’ had a number of other accomplish¬ 
ments which amused the policemen, and as the 
time grew on, it was evident that he was des¬ 
tined to be, if not the ‘daughter of the regi¬ 
ment,’ the son of that particular police battal¬ 
ion. During the recent prevalence of the grip, 
"Ikey’ became ill and after the utmost care that 
the officers and the skill that they could com¬ 
mand, was lavished upon him, poor ‘Ikey’ 
breathed his last, leaving behind him as 
mourners a host of friends whom he had made 
in the short time of his residence at the station. 
The officers determined to give ‘Ikey’ a hand¬ 
some funeral, and will mark his grave in the 
pauper grounds with an imposing monument. 


334 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


“The president of one of the Boston syna¬ 
gogues, immediately after reading the above 
notice of the death of ‘Ikey Rosenberg,’ which 
could scarcely be that of a Gentile, sent for 
the sexton, and directed him to go to the station 
house and claim the body and also inform the po i 
lice officers that the president of the synagogue 
would give the boy a decent Jewish burial. 
The sexton at once repaired to the police station 
and faithfully delivered his message. The cap¬ 
tain refused to give up the body, telling the 
sexton that as the Hebrews didn’t pay any at¬ 
tention to ‘Ikey’ during his lifetime, and allowed 
him to be brought up by his Christian friends, 
that they declined to give up the body, but 
would bury it themselves. This message in¬ 
censed the president of the congregation, who 
directed the sexton to inform the captain that 
the Hebrews always bury their own dead, with 
appropriate rites, in consecrated ground, and 
that they demanded the body. Upon receiving 
this message, the captain refused point blank to 
give up the body, repeating to the sexton that 
the officers of the station would give it a decent 
Christian burial. Thereupon the president of 
the synagogue and a number of the members of 
the same, with their blood fully aroused at such 
a sacrilegious proceeding, visited the station 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 335 

house and demanded the body. Again the cap¬ 
tain refused. He told them that, while he 
wouldn’t give up the body, he would invite the 
president and the members of his congregation 
to attend the funeral. This only added to the 
flame of indignation of the president and his 
company, and they declared that they would at 
once apply to the Supreme Court for a manda¬ 
mus to take the body. The captain thereupon 
told them that, in order that their affidavits in 
the morning papers should not contain any mis¬ 
statement as to the derelictness or disrespect in 
the treatment of the remains by the officers, it 
would be best for them to view the body. This 
request the president and his followers acceded 
to, and the captain, calling his men who were 
in the station to accompany him, escorted the 
irate Israelite into a room in the rear of the 
station, where, upon a board, covered with a 
white sheet, with wreaths of green and cut 
flowers in profusion, lay, in his last sleep, ‘Ikey 
Rosenberg’—a parrot /” 

“is THERE TO BE A NEW ST. BARTHOLOMEW?’’ 

The racial and religious prejudice of ignorant 
and superstitious mediaeval Europe threatens 
once again to overtake the Children of Israel. 
The following article appeared in the London 


336 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


Spectator (January 14, 1899), discussing the 
question: “Is thereto be a New St. Bartholo¬ 
mew?” 

“We must refuse absolutely to believe that 
there is any real danger of a new St. Bartholo¬ 
mew in Paris in which the Jews primarily, and 
the Huguenots and Protestants in the second 
place, will be the victims of massacre. The 
notion is one which is quite unthinkable in a 
civilized country like France. Yet we are well 
aware that there are plenty of people in Paris at 
this moment who regard the danger as some¬ 
thing more than possible. That they have some 
excuse for their opinion we do not deny, for the 
baser portion of the French press has of late 
reeked with attacks on the Jews. Not only 
does M. Drumont, in the Libre Parole , a paper 
which, we believe, circulates by the half-million 
daily, incite the mob to attack the Jews, but a 
number of other papers, some of which, we 
deeply regret to say, profess a religious com¬ 
plexion, hound on the mob to what is, in fact, 
massacre. No doubt Frenchmen are excitable 
and mean less by violent language than Eng¬ 
lishmen. When they talk of it being necessary 
that blood should flow they do not always mean 
murder. At the same time, we cannot forget 
that history has always shown that in France 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 33? 

vile words are often the precursors of vile 
deeds. Again, we must remember that the out- 
oreak of violence against the Jews and the 
Protestants is not now merely an affair of 
‘heady’ newspapers. There is a large Anti- 
Semitic literature, which is apparently printed, 
published, and sold at what we should call here 
religious bookshops. In the Temps of Decem¬ 
ber 4th last there is an article by M. Gaston Des- 
champs which shows that the delirium from 
which France is suffering is being shared by a 
section, at any rate, of the Roman Church, and 
that the men who ought, as Christians, to be 
doing all they can to allay the outbreak of 
cruelty and injustice, are actually fanning the 
flames. We do not, it is needless to say, blame 
the Roman Catholic Church as an institution 
for this. It merely shows that a portion of the 
French Roman Catholics have taken up what we 
do not hesitate to describe as a wicked and ab¬ 
solutely un-Christian attitude. “We must add, 
also, that apparently the higher ecclesiastical 
authorities as a whole have not cared, as they 
ought to have cared, to take upon themselves 
the duty of a crusade against the vile monster 
of Anti-Semitism. The church has, in fact, 
missed a great opportunity for standing forth 
and showing France the duty of the followers 


338 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


of Christ when such questions are involved as 
those which arise over the threatened persecu¬ 
tion of the Jews. 

“M. Gaston Deschamps decribes how he 
went from one vender of pious works to another, 
and turned over the pamphlets which lay among 
the rosaries, the prayer books, and the pious 
medals. In one shop he was offered the ‘Mar¬ 
seillaise anti-semite,’ dedicated to Joan of Arc. 
In this work (according to M. Gaston Des¬ 
champs) occurs a prayer: ‘0 peuple de France, 
leve-toi avec Jeanne d’Arc. Les protestants 
eux aussi sont des traitres a la patrie Fran^aise.’ 
Another pamphlet from the same shop speaks 
of ‘the pack of Huguenots who are carrying on 
against the army a dreadful campaign.’ 

“ ‘Ces Huguenots ont sans doute la sensation 
des represailles que les attendant.’ So this 
tirade goes on till at last we are told that ‘the 
day is coming near’ when the country at the 
end of its patience will break the insupportable 
yoke under which it bends, and will seek, 
"apres une juste vengeance dans un avenir 
reparateur, le refuge et le salut.’ As M. Gaston 
Deschamps says, ‘this is almost the tocsin of 
St. Germain—l’Auxerrois.” And he adds: ‘It 
was thus that certain theologians wrote on the 
eve of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes— 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 339 

the dawn of a day when a fratricidal proscrip¬ 
tion destroyed the staff of our armies and 
ruined for so long our foreign trade.’ Yet an¬ 
other part of this same pamphlet says of Col¬ 
onel Picquart, who is a Catholic of Lorraine: 
‘Sur la religion du Colonel Picquart on n’est pas 
bien fixe; on a de bonnes raisons pour le croire 
d’origine israelite.’ But we need not give any 
more extracts. It is clear, unless M. Gaston 
Deschamps has, which we cannot believe, gar¬ 
bled his extracts, that the writers of these 
works hold up Jews and Protestants not only to 
popular odium, but to popular vengeance. We 
have no doubt that in the writings of certain 
French secularists things as infamous, or even 
more infamous, have often been said against 
priests and Jesuits; but that wrong is no excuse. 
Of what avail is Christianity if the Christian is 
to be no better than his opponents? The way 
to get France back into the paths of Christian¬ 
ity is by preaching and teaching the religion of 
mercy and good will, not by floods of prejudice, 
suspicion, vengeance, cruelty, and hate Be¬ 
fore we leave the odious subject of these at¬ 
tacks on the Jews and Protestants, it is worth 
while to note what ‘Gyp’ said to the correspon¬ 
dent of the Daily Mail after she had been cast in 
damages for a libel on M. Trarieux; ‘Gyp’ had 


340 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


alleged that M. Trarieux had become a Protes¬ 
tant in order to make a rich marriage. Madame 
de Martel (‘Gyp’) declared that she wished not 
merely to drive the Jews out of society, but out 
of France, and this she regards as not impossi¬ 
ble. After declaring that the Jews are at the 
bottom of the alleged Dreyfus syndicate, she 
goes on; ‘In all this the Jews, who are the 
prime movers of disorder, will get the worst of 
it. They do not realize their danger. If the 
social revolution comes they will be the first to 
be swept away. Even now if an attack were to 
be made on the house of any prominent Jew, 
or if an affray were to take place in the street, 
and some one were to be killed then it would be 
impossible to prevent the matter from going 
further.’ This, of course, must mean that if 
only an attack is begun upon this or that un¬ 
popular Jew, it will end in a general massacre. 
Nevertheless we do not believe that ‘Gyp’ is a 
true prophet. There is danger, no doubt, but 
the more clearly it is realized the more anxious 
will be not only the Jews, but all who dislike 
disorder and anarchy, to see the state and the 
army in the hands of a strong man. Hence, in 
our opinion, there will not be a new St. Bar¬ 
tholomew, but rather a dictatorship in order to 
avoid it. We regret greatly that this should be 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 341 

the alternative, for we believe a liberal Republic 
the best government for France. Our regrets, 
however, cannot alter the facts, and the leading 
fact of the present situation is that one after 
another all the chief influences in France are 
setting in the direction of the overthrow of the 
Republic, and the substitution of a dictatorship 
—probably in the hands of a member of the 
Bonaparte family. 

“Even in a case like that of an Anti-Semitic 
movement, which by its cruelty and wanton¬ 
ness causes a sort of horror naturalise it is as 
well to try to see the case of the other side, and 
not to assume that there can be no defense. 
Why do so many Frenchmen hate the Jews? 
How is it possible that newspapers can be read 
that gloat over the prospect of Jewish corpses 
choking the sewers? What is it that has caused 
this outbreak of barbarous ferocity in a civi¬ 
lized nation? These are questions easier to ask 
than to answer. No doubt the Jews have come 
to the top in many professions—but then that 
can only be because the Jews have services to 
sell which Frenchmen as a whole consider worth 
buying. The Jews cannot give a man a great 
practice as a doctor or as an engineer. He gets 
his wealth by obliging Christians in some form 
or other. It is said, too, that it is naturally 


342 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


maddening to Frenchmen to see so many great 
official posts held by Jews—at one time we are 
told half the prefects in France were Jews. But 
surely the remedy for such a state of things is 
not to persecute Jews and to talk about the 
necessity for bloodshed to redress a great 
wrong, but to put such pressure upon the 
government that they will not appoint anymore 
Jews. Again, it is said that the Jews are very 
rich, which is no doubt true; but that is hardly 
a reason for attacking them, unless the assail¬ 
ants are Socialists. Lastly, it is often urged 
that the Jews are too insolent to be borne, and 
that their overbearing ways are intolerable. 
But even granted that this is so, how can any 
one seriously regard it as an excuse for an Anti- 
Semite crusade of the kind that is going on in 
France? No one can pretend that Jews in 
France have proved bad citizens in any real 
sense. They have not shirked service in the 
army. They have not avoided paying taxes. 
They have not attempted to undermine any of 
the institutions of the country. They have not 
as a class dealt any blows against public moral¬ 
ity or public order. The Jew as a rule is a good 
son, a good father, a good husband, and a good 
patriot— i. e ., a man willing to stand or fall by 
the country in which he happens to be a ctiinze. 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 343 

As far, then, as we can see, the Jew is perse¬ 
cuted in France simply because he is sup¬ 
posed to be a disagreeable person. He is not 
hated, as in Eastern Europe, because he is a 
small money lender, or because he has come, 
largely owing to persecution, to practice certain 
bad trades, but simply and solely because he is 
a Jew—and so a person about whom it is always 
safe to believe the worst. With such a preju¬ 
dice it is of course useless to argue, but it is 
impossible not to take the Anti-Semitic feeling 
in France into account when one is gauging the 
condition of that country and her prospects as 
a nation. We are quite aware that all France 
is not Anti-Semite, and that, indeed, the 
majority of Frenchmen have no wish to avenge 
themselves on Jews and Protestants. Unfor¬ 
tunately, however, there does exist a large sec¬ 
tion who take seriously, and sympathize with, 
the attacks on the Dreyfusards, the Semites, 
and the Huguenots. As long as that section 
exists, and it is possible for men to talk of a 
new St. Bartholomew, how can we look upon 
the state of France without alarm and regret?” 

In America the Jew has a double claim to 
recognition—the claim of the man under the 
wide tolerance of the nineteenth century, and 
the claim of the American citizen under the 


344 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


broad spirit of the American constitution. Has 
he received the treatment he merits as a man 
and the rights he deserves as a citizen? 

In our social, professional and even political 
clubs the Jew is blackballed. Hosts apologize 
for the “stranger” by assuring you that he is a 
good fellow, if he is a Jew. The merchant who 
cheats his creditor or rivals his competitor, if 
he comes of Hebrew blood, has hissed at him 
—JEW. Judaism is made responsible for every 
trick in trade. Do we not derive all our notions 
of integrity from the Jew, who first taught the 
world, “Thou shalt not steal,” and “Thou shalt 
not bear false witness.” “It is an ill bird that 
fouls its own nest.” 

It is just as unreasonable to use the word 
“Yankee” for all that meanness which, it is said, 
would cheat in the measurement if given the 
right to sell out the Atlantic Ocean by the pint, 
as to make of the word “Jew” a verb to desig¬ 
nate taking advantage in trade. I have seen 
some mean Yankees, who in the words of another 
“with a jackknife and a pine shingle could 
in two hours’ time whittle the smartest Jew in 
New York out of his homestead in the Abra- 
hamic covenant.” But to despise all New Eng¬ 
landers, among whom are the biggest-brained 
and largest-hearted people upon earth, on ac- 


PREJRD ICE AGAINST THE JEW. 345 

count of the proverbial meanness and trickery 
of some, is certainly unreasonable prejudice. In 
Marlowe’s “Jew of Malta,” Scene II., Act I., 
Barabbas is made to say: 

Some Jews are wicked as some Christians are, 

But say the tribe that I descended of 
Were all in general cast away for sin, 

Shall I be tried for their transgression ? 

The man that dealeth righteously shall live. 

Never was a truer word spoken, every Jew 
has been made responsible for the acts of every 
other Jew. 

In one of the finest passages of Cumberland’s 
“The Jew,” Sheva answers Sir Stephen, who 
cannot conceive that a Jew cannot lend even a 
small sum without the desire of doubling; 

“What has Sheva done to be called a villain? 
I am a Jew; what then? Is that a reason none 
of my tribe should have a sense of pity? You 
have no great deal of pity yourself, but I do 
know many noble British merchants that do 
abound in pity, therefore, I do not abuse your 
tribe.” The prejudice that still exists against 
the Jew must be traced to this as one of the 
leading causes. One is made responsible for all 
and all for one. Paul and Iscariot were both 
Jews, and yet many a Christian execrates the 
nation from whom the betrayer of the Master 


346 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


sprung and seems to forget altogether that of 
the same nation sprang Paul, the great apostle. 
Is it fair to blame Christianity for the villainy 
of church members? The teachings of the Bible 
can only produce good. Why should not the Ten 
Commandments promulgated through Moses 
have as powerful and as purifying a grasp upon 
the conscience of the Jew as upon that of the 
Gentile? 

Is it fair to let prejudice against individuals 
develop into prejudice against a race? Let the 
reproach be cast where it belongs upon the in¬ 
dividual and not the race. I have known some 
mean Jews, just as mean and low and filthy as 
some Gentiles. “Yes,” to quote Rabbi Kraus- 
kopf again: 

“Jews have been mean. They have been 
vulgar and vile. They have been dirty and 
tricky. They have shunned the country and 
have infested the cities. They have turned 
their backs upon agriculture and upon the 
handicrafts, and with their rapacious talons 
have seized the profitable commerce and finan¬ 
ces of the nations. They have been parasites 
and usurers. They have been Shylocks and 
Iscariots. Jews have been all this, are all this, 
and for all I know, even worse than this. 

“Not a very flattering portrait of the Jew this 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 347 

is, especially not when drawn by a Jew himself, 
and by one, who, as far as he knows, is a Jew 
in good standing. Whatever merit this picture 
has not I claim for the painter at least the merit 
of frankness. A portrait of the historic Jew 
without these dark shadows would be as false a 
picture as would be a portrait of an historic 
Christian, drawn wholly Christlike, wholly 
saintly, without a touch of that spirit that 
slaughtered the Saxons, that manipulated the 
torture and the rack, that originated the Inqui¬ 
sition and instituted the St. Bartholomew Night 
Massacre, that burned at the stakes of Smith- 
heed, of Constance, of Rome, of Geneva, of 
Florence, the Latimers and Husses, the Brunos 
and Servetuses and Savonarolas, those cour¬ 
ageous heralds who began to chirp the song of 
the New Dawn. ‘Paint me as I look,’ said 
Cromwell to the artist, who desired to conceal 
some of the Protector’s facial defects, ‘if you 
omit any of the scars and wrinkles, you shall 
not have a penny for your trouble.’ ” 
“Prejudice against the Jew,’’ exclaimed Rabbi 
Emil G. Hirsch, in righteous indignation, “is 
harbored especially by the women. One, prob¬ 
ably a descendant of a good honorable fur 
trader, who came to America when the fur 
traffic was profitable, has become anxious to 


348 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


represent a certain social nobility, and as even 
the common play of Christian Americans is not 
good enough for her daughters, she imports 
at a high price some foreigner to take the 
daughter off her hands and give her a title. An¬ 
other is the child of some good, honest butcher 
who made his money by killing sheep and in¬ 
vesting it carefully, and through the unearned 
increment became wealthy. Terribly learned 
and terribly cultured, she will not mingle 
with one that may possibly be a descendant of 
the family that gave to the world Jesus, her 
own redeemer. It is the American women 
mostly that foster this prejudice. What is 
their excuse? They affect to believe that the 
Jew is vulgar. That the Jewess as a rule is a 
walking, perambulating jewelry establishment. 
The Jew cannot speak English. The Jew is 
rude. All these ridiculous charges are winged 
arrows sent to keep at a distance and to do in¬ 
jury to a class of men and women who, to say 
the least, are as refined as their snobbish tra- 
ducers. If these Americans traveling in Europe 
knew any language but their own, so they could 
understand what is said of them, they would 
learn that in Europe the Americans are held to 
be what these Americans hold the Jews to be. 
Why? Because probably at rare intervals one 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 349 

of their set was of this character, and as the 
Americans in Europe are in the minority, all 
suffer, as every minority will suffer, for the 
misdeeds of one of their number.” 

With all the rough handling the world has 
given the Jew, it is wonderful that he has no 
more faults. For, as Shakespeare made Shy- 
lock to say: “He hath disgraced me, and hin¬ 
dered me of half a million, laughed at my losses, 
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, 
thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, 
heated my enemies—and what’s his reason? I 
am a Jew. Hath not .a Jew eyes? Hath not a 
Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affec¬ 
tions, passions? Is he not fed with the same 
food, hurt with the same weapon, subject to the 
same diseases, healed by the same means, 
warmed and cooled by the same winter and 
summer as a Christian is? If you prick us do 
we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not 
laugh? If you poison us do we not die? and if 
you wrong us shall we not revenge?” 

In justice may the Jew apply to himself the 
words which the shepherdess Sulamit, in the 
“Song of Songs,” addressed to the king’s courtly 
ladies who looked contemptuously upon her: 
“Black am I but yet comely. Despise me not 
because I am somewhat black. Is it a wonder 


350 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


that I am somewhat disfigured? Persecution’s 
burning rays have scorched me fiercely. My 
mother’s children have indeed been angry with 
me. They have forced me to keep their vine¬ 
yard and to neglect my own.” 

Lord Macaulay has truly said: ‘‘The Jew is 
what we made him.” Leroy-Beaulieu forcibly 
says: ‘‘Their virtues are their own, their vices 
are our making. Their virtues are the result of 
Judaic teaching; their vices are the result of 
circumstances which we have massed about 
their life.” Or to use the words of the late Sen¬ 
ator Vance: “If the Jew is a bad job, in all 
honesty we should contemplate him as the 
handiwork of our own civilization.” 

In their dealings Jews are as honorable as 
other men. Their social standards are just as 
low and just as fine as other people’s in corres¬ 
ponding positions. Money often gets ahead of 
the manners of Jews and Gentiles alike. Where 
do you not find the parvenu in American so¬ 
ciety? How many people do you know who 
have had two generations of continuous wealth 
and the conditions of refined society? The 
noble exist everywhere in all races and in all 
religions. The inordinate love of gold is the sin 
of our day and one of the grave perils of our 
civilization. The jingle of coin is the snare of 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 351 

all religions creeds and races alike. If we loved 
God as we love gold we should soon be lifted 
into angelhood. The almost frenzied strife to 
get money is never-ceasing, and to obtain it 
many a Christian imperils alike his body and 
his soul, and no matter how despicable the man 
may be, if he gets money, by hook or crook, 
and either of them are far from being straight, 
he will be idolized, though mentally deficient, 
vulgar in person, ugly in features and coarse in 
language. Let us remember this truth when 
we sit in judgment upon the Jewish people. 
Among Jews as among Christians there are 
those who think more of the man with bonds in 
his pockets than of the man with bonds on his 
hands and feet; there are vulgar, loud-mouthed, 
money-inflated, offensive snobs, who fill you 
with insufferable disgust. Among Jews and 
Christians you find highly bred and charming 
men and women. But we have judged the Jew 
not individually but collectively, and so we 
have grossly misrepresented and misjudged 
him to his irretrievable injury. No people 
suffer more on account of these vulgar Jews 
than the high-minded and refined Hebrew men 
and women. Are there not Gentiles who can 
be described exactly in the same terms? But 
w do not apply the test to the Gentiles we 


352 


JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 


apply to the Jews—of holding the class respon¬ 
sible for the sins of the individual. 

Some years ago, in the east side of New 
York, a Jewish mother from Bussia was con¬ 
fined, and her little babe was born without a 
shred of clothing to put on it. The doctor, who 
had come from the College Settlement, sent 
back to the Settlement and got some baby gar¬ 
ments that were kept for such an exigency, and 
brought them and put them on the little babe 
and put the babe in the mother’s arms. The 
mother shut her eyes and rested for a moment 
in that strange sweet ecstasy of motherhood, 
and then she opened her eyes and said: “What 
Jewish society sent these to me?” The doctor 
said: “No Jewish society, my dear; they were 
sent by some Christians.” The mother shut 
her eyes and pondered a moment, and then she 
opened them again with wonder and said: “I 
didn’t know that Christians could be so kind.” 
Judenhas cannot shield itself behind Christian¬ 
ity. That gentleness which breathes upon us 
from the hills of Judea makes kin of all man¬ 
kind. 


THE RETURN OF THE JEWS TO PALESTINE. 

The proposal that a distinctively Jewish com¬ 
monwealth be established in Palestine with 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 353 

Jerusalem as its capital is an idea which is 
spreading with marvelous rapidity among the 
Jews of all nations. It is the outcome of a 
state of things which, to the lasting dishonor 
of Germany, Austria, Roumania, and Russia, 
has rendered the lives of Jews intolerable. 
Even France is at present unable to protect its 
Jewish citizens from the onslaught of fanaticism 
and intolerance. The Jews of England and the 
United States are free from persecution, but 
they are not the kind of people who would 
ignore the sufferings of their persecuted fellow - 
Jews in other countries, and with every fresh 
outbreak of Anti-Semitic fury Zionism takes 
deeper root. While all Jews deeply sympathize 
with their oppressed co-religionists and hope 
for the day when the Holy Land will be restored 
to the Jew, still many Jews earnestly contend 
that Zionism is not the ultimate exaltation of 
Israel. Oswald John Simon, an English Jew, 
writing in the Nineteenth Century (September, 
1898 ), scornfully rejects the entire programme 
as propounded by Dr. Herzl, Max Nordau, Prof. 
Richard Gottheil, Rev. Stephen S. Wise, and 
others at the Basle Congress. He says: 

'‘It is almost inconceivable that any Jew with 
a remnant of the iron spirit which has made his 
race the heroes of all ages would accept as a 


354 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

final settlement of the so-called Jewish question 
a condition of political impotence and of 
national paralysis. No; in God’s name let us 
be victims of persecution in other countries, but 
not in our own. Let us fight for our natural 
human rights as the citizens of any civilized 
country to the bitter end; but let us not submit 
to form ourselves voluntarily into a state which 
could only exist upon sufferance. As an at¬ 
tempt to realize the ideal of Judaism the pro¬ 
gramme formulated at Basle presents the spec¬ 
tacle of the most contemptible, if not the most 
grotesque, species of idealism which was ever 
laid before the remnant of the descendants of 
a great nation. 

“Bulgaria! Servia! Koumania! Are these to 
be the models of a renovated Israel? 

“Colonize in Palestine and elsewhere by all 
means, but the words nation and state for the 
Jewish people should never be heard unless and 
until it can be such a nation and such a state as 
shall harmonize with the ideas of their faith, 
and be worthy of their remarkable origin. . . . 

“The only possible argument that could 
justify such a movement would be to prove that 
a Jewish State in Palestine would be a real 
haven of rest and a deliverance from misery to 
freedom. No such demonstration is forthcom- 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 355 

ing. On the contrary, there is every reason to 
apprehend that the privation and oppression 
which Jews endure in Russia and Roumania 
would merely be transferred to another place if 
they could succeed in forming themselves 
into a separate State in Palestine. 

“Can the advocates of this scheme point to a 
single instance of a population enjoying com¬ 
plete liberty who have been subject to the rule 
of the Turkish government—a population, one 
must add, which does not profess the Moslem 
creed? Terrible as the conditions of large Jew¬ 
ish populations in Russia and Roumania and 
Galicia are at the present day, their condition 
cannot be said to be hopeless, for there is no 
finality about it. 

“In Russia and in Roumania they are strug¬ 
gling for emancipation as Russian and Rouma¬ 
nian citizens. The backward civilization of those 
countries is not in the nature of things a final con¬ 
dition any more than the backward condition 
of England or France two centuries ago was 
final. Progress of thought and of education 
must inevitably work a change in the state of 
public opinion in such an empire as Russia. It 
is not in accord with the philosophy of human 
history that a great and powerful nation with 
the vast geographical dimensions of Russia, 


356 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

standing as it does within the pale of Christian 
profession, can forever remain stagnant and 
unprogressive. It may be that she is as far be¬ 
hind the civilization of other Christian States as 
can be measured by a century of time or by 
two centuries—but it would be unhistqrical and 
untrue to the experience of human affairs to 
take it for granted that Christianity shall for 
all time in one-half of Europe wear the garb of 
paganism and stagnation. So long as the Jews 
remain scattered in different parts of the globe 
there must always remain a reasonable hope 
that in one country after another emancipation 
will be effected. 

“Suppose in the Middle Ages, when the Jews 
were expelled from England, this panic-stricken 
pessimism had seized them, and they had 
formed themselves into an independent State in 
Syria. What would have been the conse¬ 
quence? We should at this day, in all prob¬ 
ability, have been thrown back in the tide of 
civilization as an oppressed, downtrodden 
Oriental caste with the nominal badge of 
nationality, but without the power of national 
independence. Our ancestors suffered and 
waited during the dark centuries between the 
age of Edward the First and that of Cromwell. 
And now we are part of so many European 


357 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 

states existing not on sufferance, but upon the 
principles of natural human rights. To with¬ 
draw from a State in which we are even perse¬ 
cuted is to abandon our claim to those natural 
human rights to which every unit in each State 
is entitled, and from which he is only excluded 
through the operation of false views and of de¬ 
mented philosophy. 

“Palestine is the last place on earth to select 
for the settlement of a Jewish State just be¬ 
cause it is Palestine. A settlement there means 
a final settlement. For good or for evil it 
would represent the end of all things, an ab¬ 
sorption of every principle for which we have 
struggled since our ancestors were exiled. And 
we know that the whole of Palestine could not 
contain the Jewish population of the world, 
for it is no bigger than Wales. 

“Personally, and I am by no means an ex¬ 
ception, I should utterly object to live under 
the suzerainty of the Sultan, or the joint 
guarantees of the Powers. Our co-religionists 
in Roumania have had twenty years’ expe¬ 
rience of living under the guarantee of the 
Powers. And they have learned to their bitter 
cost that the vital forty-third article of the 
Treaty of Berlin, upon which their freedom ab- 


358 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 

solutely depended, was remitted by the Powers 
to be absolutely ignored by the new petty king¬ 
dom. When our ancestors were a nation in the 
political sense they were not dependent upon 
guarantees, powers or suzerainties. 

“To a Jew who has discarded the Biblical 
aspects of Judaism, Palestine can have no per¬ 
manent attraction. If he wanted to form a 
Jewish State, Palestine would be the one place 
on earth which he would scrupulously avoid. 
It has nothing to recommend it except its 
Biblical associations. 

“The West, and not the East, is the natural 
sphere for political development. The deaden¬ 
ing influence of Turkish rule and Eastern civili¬ 
zation, as we know them to-day, are not sugges¬ 
tive of progress and enlightenment any more 
than Russian ideas are indicative of freedom 
and liberty.” 

AMERICA, THE JEWISH CANAAN. 

In God’s good time a morning has dawned for 
the Jew—dawned in the West, where his woes 
shall cease. When on their Festival days the 
Jews say to one another: “Next year in Jeru¬ 
salem,” few interpret that faith of their fathers 
literally. In America at least those Israelites 


PREJUDICE AGAINST THE JEW. 359 

are hard to be found who whisper to themselves 
with Jehudah Halevy:* 

“ My heart is in the East, though in the West I live, 

The sweets of human life no happiness can give. 

Religious duties fail to alike lift my soul on high, 

For Zion writhes ’neath Edom, I in Arab fetters he. 

No joy in sunny Spain mine eyes can ever see, 

For Zion’s dust alone hath any charms for me!” 

Dr. Theo. Herzl, of Vienna, the leader of the 
Zionist movement in Europe, in a recent ad¬ 
dress in London, said: “My words to the West 
have fallen on deaf ears; but my words to the East 
are producing an abundant harvest.” Heine 
said: “If all Europe were to become a prison, 
America would still present a loophole of es¬ 
cape, and, God be praised! that loophole is 
larger than the dungeon itself.” 

America is the Zion from which goes forth 
the law. Here is liberty enlightening the 
world. America and not Palestine is the Jew¬ 
ish Mecca. America, peerless, unrivalled, un¬ 
approached and unapproachable America, has 
become the Jewish Canaan. America is the 
refuge of the oppressed of all the nations. 
Take your harps down from the willows and 
sing the songs of Zion. Here you have found 
not only liberties, but Liberty! 


translated from the original by Rev. Dr. H. Pereira Mendes. 













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